Done
by hot-ninja-babe
Summary: Sasuke's back... Sakura is done with him...
1. Chapter 1

A team of three anbu bound through the trees in route back to the leaf village, their home. Each of the three was adorned in black clothing and grey chest armour, metal arm guards and gloves, ninja sandals with spikes for travelling into mountainous regions, three ninja pouches on their back or waist and each member donning the signature spiral anbu tattoo on their upper arm. However the clear leader of the group has a black cloak draped over petite shoulders, the hood up covering their hair, with a piece of cloth coming across their face, only allowing a pair of jade eyes to be seen, while the two anbu following behind have the basic porcelain animal masks covering their faces.

The trio comes into the view of the gates of Konoha and the squad leader signals the team to stop. The three come to an abrupt halt, the two followers step up to see what had caused their sudden stop and nod in understanding to their leader and disappear in a poof of smoke.

The squad leader, quickly latches her cloak tightly together, to hide the anbu uniform, and swiftly pulls off the hood and face covering, allowing long, bright fuchsia locks of hair to escape and flow down her back. Jade eyes close in concentration as she casts jutsus over herself to hide her anbu tattoo and uniform as a precaution.

The young anbu quickly leaps through the trees continuing on her way, as she braces herself to enter the village gates. The woman reaches the gates and gracefully descends from the trees and onto the road, coming into clear view of the people she had sensed earlier.

"SAKURA!" a blonde young man in bright orange shouts bounding toward the now beaming pinkette, and captures her in a bear hug, which Sakura gladly returns. After a few seconds the blonde pulls away and drags Sakura through the gates, where a crowd of people were gathered, all of the rookie nine and sensei's are present along with team Gai.

Sakura rolls her emerald eyes and glances suspiciously around; she already knew why they were all here, but decided to allow them to surprise her. "Naruto what is going on?" the pink haired woman finally asks as she smiles at her friends.

"I finally did it Sakura! I kept my promise to you! I brought Sasuke back!" Naruto speaks excitedly gesturing toward the left where some of their friends step back to reveal the pair's former team mate along with three others behind him, two men and one woman. Sakura smiles, and simply nods in acknowledgement at Sasuke, then turns back to Naruto a bright smile gracing her lips as she quickly engulfs him in a hug, which is returned as a goofy fox grin makes its way onto Naruto's face.

The duo pull apart and link arms, as they had begun to do when they had turned sixteen and Naruto had gotten over his crush on Sakura. The two nineteen year olds turn toward their friends and smile, until they were rudely interrupted by the red haired woman behind Sasuke, "So this is the weak little kunoichi slut you left behind Sasuke, no wonder. She is ugly; I mean really that hair and look at that forehead."

Dead silence descends as every person has eyes on Sakura, not even Naruto can bring himself to speak, with wide sea blue eyes bulging out of his head, his mouth flapping open, like a fish out of water, his arm going slack around Sakura's. Sakura however sends a blinding smile towards the red head and softly replies, "Hmm, well at least I'm not his sloppy seconds, like you."

This reply elicits cackles from each and every kunoichi present, as the men simply stand by smirking, except Naruto and Sai, who look on in wonder as they were only use to the violent side of the pinkette. While the red haired woman gapes startled by the woman's comeback. Sakura smirks at the woman and turns to Naruto and says "I have to go and report to Lady Tsunade."

"Awww, no Sakura it's dinner time, we can go celebrate with ramen." Naruto replies a pout adorning his whiskered face. Sakura smiles giving him a side hug and quickly moving away with a simple reply to float back to the blonde "Don't worry Naruto, we will have ramen together soon, but how about you take Hinata out instead." Sakura smiles as she glances at the blushing Hyuuga, who smiles shyly at the fox boy. The pair had been dating for two years now and still Hinata blushed around the blonde man.

Sakura goes around to all her friends and hugs each of them, the guys included, talking to some in passing. The girls quickly formulating plans for a girls night, as they each put in their ideas for their night out, as they received their hug.

Sakura stops momentarily in front of Kakashi, who has his little orange book in front of his face, causing the pink haired woman to cross her arms over her chest and glare at the silver haired man, who was like a father to her, and tap her foot impatiently.

"Oh, well hello there Sakura. Did you need something from me?" Kakashi questions innocently as he tilts his book to the side to reveal his uncovered eye. Sakura sighs rolling her eyes, allowing a smile to come to her face as she snatches away his book and almost tackles him in a hug, which he gladly returns, chuckling slightly.

Kakashi pulls away, his lone eye showing his obvious amusement, as he ruffles Sakura's cherry hair softly. "Well then, am I going to get my book back?" The jounin jokes chuckling as Sakura moves away abruptly and tosses the book over her head with a small laugh. He catches the small object with ease and pockets it immediately, still a happy sparkle in his one eye. He truly did see the young cherry blossom as a daughter.

Sakura continues her greetings, as she hadn't seen any of her friends in over two months, well really they were family. Since her parents deaths when she was fourteen, these people surrounding her, as well as a few select others where the only people she considered family.

Sakura shared a special bond with each of them, such as her an Ino being best friends as well as all of the girls along with her; they all stuck together, they were even known as the fierce four around Konoha. Then there was the brother/sister relationship between her, Sai, and Naruto. There was also her flirty, but never serious relationship with Kiba, which had led to Sakura's attachment to Akamaru. This attachment resulted in many runs through the forests on the out skirts of the village with Akamaru. Then there was Sakura's constant cooking adventures, which always involved Chouji in some way, and were usually followed by a game of shogi with Shikamaru. Sakura even formed a bond with Shino, and had been on several bug hunting escapades with him. These were the kinds of small but firm bonds that she shared with each of the people around her in some form or fashion, never too complicated, but always worth the time spent.

Sakura finally makes her way to the final few of her group of friends and comes to Neji, who was standing next to Lee, who was hugging Gai sensei and crying out something about the joy of youth, which elicits a wry smile from Sakura. The green beast of Konoha had gotten over his massive crush on the cherry blossom some time ago, but still found her to be the most beautiful and youthful woman in the village.

"Neji, are we still on to train tomorrow?" Sakura asks tilting her head a smile on her face, her emerald eyes sparkling as the Hyuuga smirks and nods, before enveloping Sakura in a friendly hug. Neji was a very special person to Sakura, he was the first person she had told about her parents deaths. He understood what it was like to lose a parent and had been an immense comfort to Sakura over the years. The pair had trained regularly together since she was fifteen, and Neji's mother had taken a liking to inviting Sakura over as often as possible for either dinner or to simply talk. It was a very deep bond the two shared, but neither ever acknowledged it.

Sakura grins as the two pull apart and turns toward Sasuke and the trio behind him. "I am glad your back Sasuke." Sakura says a friendly smile set in place, as she sees the red haired girl glaring at her again, yet does not move from her spot beside Neji. Sasuke nods in acknowledgement, but does nothing else, so the pinkette rolls her eyes and takes two quick strides toward the Uchiha and wraps her petite arms around him, causing him to stiffen, but quickly relax, yet still does not return the hug.

Sakura pulls away after a second and turns to leave, but is stopped by another sarcastic comment from behind Sasuke "Well it looks like you finally grew a pair."

Sakura turns around slowly her jade eyes set in a hard stare on the fiery young woman behind Sasuke, and replies "No, I did not grow a "pair" as you say, because you know balls are sensitive and weak, so no I did not grow a "pair." I grew a vagina. Now they can take a pounding. That along with an attitude and I'm set for life. How about you go grow a vagina and then you can talk to me Karin."

Sakura briskly walks away, as every single girl left except Karin burst into fits of laughter, while the men have mix of reactions. The friends however quickly disperse with the pinkette's exit.

The pink haired medic quickly takes to the roof tops as she leaves the sight of her friends, heading for Hokage tower, where she can sense the Hokage's chakra signature. When the pinkette reaches the tower, after making a short stop, she enters through the window silently and is greeted with a sleeping Hokage.

"Tsunade!" Sakura yells laughing as she jumps and comes close to falling out of her chair. The pink haired woman makes her way to the chair in front of the desk and gracefully takes a seat as Tsunade rights herself while glaring daggers at her apprentice.

"Sakura, glad to see you too." Tsunade says yawning, while clearing away some paper work she had scattered across her desk.

"Well, I figured you would be asleep, so I stopped and got some food." Sakura sings out placing two boxes of fried rice down on her desk, eliciting a soft smile from Tsunade, who was like a mother to Sakura, as she gratefully takes the offered food and chopsticks resting on top of the little container.

"So saw Sasuke and everyone else when I got back. My team had to leave a mile from Konoha." Sakura says as she tears apart her chopsticks.

"Ah yes, sorry I couldn't warn you. Naruto dragged him and those other three in two weeks ago. The elders are still discussing punishment, but ultimately I decide what is to happen. I decided to wait for you to get back before making the final decision." Tsunade answers Sakura's unasked question as she digs in to her rice.

"Hmmm, so did he kill Itachi?" Sakura inquires taking small bites of her rice as she watches Tsunade's expression sadden.

"Yes, they brought the body in and he was cremated, after I examined him."

"Man I wish that idiot would have just agreed to go along with my plan; he would be here right now." Sakura says sadly placing her container of rice down on the desk. The two women remain silent; the only movement is Tsunade's chopsticks.

"It is a terrible loss, but he was a wonderful shinobi and a fantastic teacher." Tsunade speaks finally watching her apprentice's reaction carefully as she continues eating.

"Yeah he was, I was so surprised how much I learned from him in the last year." Sakura says quietly, thinking back on her time with Itachi.

The pair had met when Sakura was on a solo anbu mission over a year and a half ago in the land of wave. It was purely an accident that they ran into each other that day, it was a dreary morning when Sakura came across Itachi's chakra signature, she immediately was on guard, and she knew it was not wise to mess with Akatsuki members, especially if they were with their partners.

Sakura however was confused that she could sense Itachi but not Kisame, who she assumed was still his partner. At the time it didn't occur to here that he might want her to find him, but she soon realized it as she came to a small clearing in the forest.

"Kunoichi, I know you are there." Itachi speaks standing in the center of the emerald covered area, his Akatsuki cloak blowing in the breeze, the blood red of the Sharingan trained on Sakura's position in the trees. Sakura sighs and mentally prepares herself for this conversation, her inner self aiding encouraging her.

"Itachi Uchiha, I did not expect to find you." Sakura says as she gracefully enters the clearing, donning her anbu gear, a black piece of fabric covering her pink tresses and her face, only her jade eyes in view.

"I suppose not, but I wanted you to find me, Sakura." Itachi says nonchalantly causing Sakura to stiffen at the mention of her name, but remains silent and carefully watches the powerful man before her that somehow knew who she was. "You are wondering how I knew who you were." Itachi states his eyes trained on the pink haired anbu. The silence continues for a few minutes, neither moving, but simply staring. The silence is broken however as Sakura inhales suddenly in surprise as Itachi's eyes fade to black.

"Why?" Sakura questions remaining in her place as she watches Itachi turn to face her fully, revealing to her trained eyes a deep gash in his right arm, which was plastered to his side. Then Itachi actually smiles and Sakura inadvertently relaxes.

"I simply needed assistance, and I sensed you nearby. Purely coincidence, but I am glad you are here Sakura Haruno." Itachi answers slowly walking toward the anbu in front of him. Sakura rolls her eyes and shakes off her dumbfounded expression and quickly removes her head scarf and advances on the Uchiha in front of her.

"Itachi Uchiha, I never thought I would see the day that I would help you." Sakura laughs but soon goes in to medic mode, ordering Itachi to first remove his cloak and then sit down. Sakura worked on his arm for an hour, knowing that Itachi had set up jutsu to protect them from others.

Once Sakura finished her work, she leaned back and the two stared at each other for a moment before Sakura spoke. "Itachi why?"

"Hn."

Sakura twitched irately and closed her eyes in concentration, and tried to keep herself from hitting the Uchiha sitting in front of her. "Itachi do I need physically drag the truth out of you? I know about your mission, every anbu does, which is so none of us will attack you or bring you back to the village, but really it's been almost ten years since the Uchiha massacre. If you were to come back to the village, you could reveal the truth about the mission and be reinstated as a Leaf Shinobi. Sasuke would understand or at least acknowledge the truth." Sakura blurts out, blushing a pretty pink as Itachi lets out a deep baritone laugh.

"No, my brother must kill Orchimaru and then me; it is the only way for this mission to end." Itachi answers after a minute, causing his pink haired companion to shake her head in disagreement.

"No, you have been such a help to the village and they would welcome you back with open arms if they knew about all you had done these past ten years. You have prevented wars and destroyed threats to the village. Itachi you are the best of the best, the village needs you." Sakura explains exasperated, but watches as the man in front of her has a small smile on his face, as he shakes his head.

"No Sakura, the village does not need me; they need my knowledge and abilities. I can pass most of those on before I die, but I know now that I cannot pass them on to just anyone. They have to be worthy." Itachi replies a genuine smile gracing his tired face as he sees Sakura's surprised expression.

"Oh and have you found anyone that is worthy. It sounds so cliché." Sakura laughs smiling brightly at Itachi.

"Yeah, I think so."

"So who is the lucky shinobi?"

"You." Itachi states his ebony eyes boring into shocked emerald. The two stay silent for a few minutes, Sakura ingesting the new surprising information, while Itachi stares at her amused. Finally Itachi breaks the silence with an explanation, "Sakura Haruno, you are the apprentice of the Hokage and she does not take just anyone. Also you made it to anbu and only the best of the best and most loyal shinobi make it in to the anbu ranks. You also possess the skill set required to perfect any technics I may show you, as well as the ability to examine my eyes to the benefit of the Leaf village. You are the perfect candidate for me to teach."

"What, wait wait wait… you mean, you want to teach me? Like be my sensei?" Sakura asks flabbergasted her green eyes wide and her mouth agape, causing Itachi to laugh again.

"Yes and I have already received permission from the Hokage. However I did not intend to seek you out to train for another few months." Itachi clarifies his gaze still analyzing Sakura as he sees her go from confused, to excited, and finally to calm shinobi exterior.

"Ok so when do we start?" Sakura questions trying to hide her excitement, she had always wanted to perfect her genjustsu and taijutsu, but never had anyone that was good at both to teach her. Now she would also be able to look at the Sharingan and analyze the blood limit for strengths and weaknesses.

"I will send a scroll to the Hokage in a week with the information you will need, now you should get going Kisame is on his way here to meet me." Itachi speaks grinning at the pinkette as she secures her head cover and nodded before disappearing.

Sakura shakes her head out of her memory as she finally takes the rice she had set down earlier and begins to eat again. Tsunade watches as her apprentice eats slowly and finally breaks the deafening silence, "Sakura he left you some things. Before you say anything, some of the things he left are extremely dangerous and should be kept hidden, but I can give you these and this list of everything he left to you."

Sakura quickly puts her food down and takes the two scrolls and the sword offered to her. Sakura admired the sword for a moment; it was the one that Itachi had trained her with. It was a black blade with sakura blossoms etched in a pale pink, that couldn't be seen until you were close enough to be cut with it, the hilt was a simple black that Sakura felt was made to fit her hand perfectly.

After her admiration of the blade Sakura quickly opens the list of things he had left to her, which had many very dangerous weapons and scrolls, but also many other ancient medical scrolls and weapons. He had also left many of the Uchiha relics in her care, until the day she deemed his brother worthy of them. However the most surprising object he had left her was the very last thing on the list, in bold dark letters.

"No Lady Tsunade there must be a mistake; he can't have left me these, that's impossible." Sakura gasps tears coming to her eyes.

"Yes he did. He left you his eyes; I have them in a safe place. He came to me not even a week before he fought Sasuke and asked me to remove them and replace them; he said he wanted his eyes to be used for the good of the village. I will allow you to decide what you wish to do with them Sakura, you have many options." Tsunade explains to the now crying girl, the blonde woman demeanor softens dramatically as she watches her apprentice break down into to sobs. This was something she had not seen Sakura do in almost four years.

"He…he was like… an older brother to me. Now I have not parents and no older brother." Sakura cries as she clutches the scrolls to her chest her tears slowing as Tsunade watches her apprentice calm herself. The two women sit in silence, a deep sadness permeating the room, as both women reign in their emotions.

"Sakura you do not need to decide this now and I know you can handle this, but I would like you to take the next two weeks off and go through the things he has left you. I think it's time you briefed me on your latest mission."

"Yes of course, here is the mission scroll. You will find all the information needed in that." Sakura replies changes in to shinobi mode immediately, no trace of tears left on her pale face.

"Well done, you're dismissed then. Go home and rest and come back tomorrow after lunch, oh but Sakura I would like you to find someone you trust to help you go through Itachi's things." Tsunade answers making it clear no argument would be accepted, and Sakura nods and grabs her food and starts to leave, but stops short and turns around.

"May I put Itachi's name on the memorial stone? I will put a jutsu on it so only those that know the truth about him will be able to see it. Please please let me do that for him." Sakura begs, her emerald eyes pleading with her Hokage, who simply nods in affirmation, causing a brilliant smile to emerge on her apprentice's face as she excitedly says thank you and goodbye, but is interrupt before she leaves.

"Sakura just do not harm Sasuke, if I have to come and heal him, you are dead." Tsunade says rolling her eyes as her pink haired apprentice simply grins at her.

"Oh I won't I am done with Sasuke, he's a teammate and friend, nothing more. However if his red haired girlfriend talks to me again, she might just disappear without a trace." Sakura replies causing Tsunade to burst out laughing and she waves her hand for Sakura to leave, which Sakura quickly adheres too and disappears in a flurry of cherry blossoms.

Sakura quickly makes her way to the memorial stone the sun just beginning to set as she casts the necessary jutsus before placing Itachi's name on the stone, as she had been shown to do years ago. The pinkette smiles fondly as she finishes her work, and looks at the rest of the names, many of these shinobi she had never met before, and for that she was glad. However it still caused a deep sadness to overcome the woman as she gazed at hundreds of names that had given their lives for the Leaf.

Sakura catches sight of one of the few names she did recognize and slowly runs her hand over it. "Asuma sensei." Sakura whispers sadly as she thinks of Kurenai, who had a beautiful little boy named Asuma at home, who had no father. Sakura sighs as she realizes that this is why Kakashi always came here, to remember those that came before and to honor those that gave their lives for the good of the village. It was a way to honor his precious people who had died.

Sakura tenses up slightly as she feels a familiar chakra heading toward her, her anbu training kicking in as she quickly relaxes and bends down; her eyes fixed a new name, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Sakura smiles at the name; he had been such a great man and a wonderful Hokage. Sakura smiles as her visitor tries to hide their chakra from her further, causing the medic to roll her eyes, sensing others chakra was something Itachi had showed her and helped her to perfect. It was to the point that it was useless to really hide from the pink haired woman.

"Sasuke, you can come out." Sakura speaks as she slowly stands to her feet, her fingers sliding off the memorial stone as she turns to face the Uchiha.

"Hn," the dark haired man replies as he comes out of the shadows, his eyes blood red with the three black commas spinning.

"What do you want Sasuke?" Sakura asks tilting her head to the side, causing her waist length pink tresses to fall around her shoulder, a wry smile gracing her pale pink lips. The pink haired anbu was not scared of the Sharingan; it no longer had any effect on her.

Sasuke doesn't answer and the two simply stare at each other, until Sakura breaks the silence by saying "Sasuke I don't have time for this, I'll see you later." Sakura turns to leave in the direction of her apartment, but is stopped by a simple sentence from Sasuke.

"You're still weak."

Sakura smiles and turns back to the raven haired man and shakes her head and smiles disappearing in a swirl of cherry blossoms, leaving Sasuke with the words, "I am done."

The pink haired woman steps into her apartment with a sigh of content as she quickly sets up traps and jutsus for any intruders. Sakura quickly changes into her night clothes that consist of one of Kakashi's black oversized shirts and a pair of Naruto's shorts, which she had acquired over a time. She also had a couple of Sai's shirts and some of Kakashi's long sweat pants, but it was still warm outside, so she stuck to the shorts she had of Naruto's.

Sakura looked around her apartment and sigh exasperated, everything was covered in a thin layer of dust. The pinkette straightens up and sets to work dusting, sweeping and cleaning her entire home.

It takes Sakura almost two hours to get her apartment sparkling clean; she had even done laundry, gone through all her food and disposed of any that was out of date. She even changed her sheets on her bed and now she dropped into her clean sheets with a moan of happiness, she hadn't slept in a proper bed for two months. The young woman promptly falls asleep.

* * *

**Hello EVERYONE! I have been working on a sequel to my story gone, but something happen and then BAM! this happened. I'm working on the next chapter, so it should be out in a week at the latest. I don't know how many chapters this will be, it kind of took on a life of its own, but I know there are some grammar mistakes, especially with tense confusion, and I will edit it before I post the next chapter, but feel free to tell me if you catch a mistake. I hope you enjoy and I PROMISE there will be more NEJI in the next chapter! Please review! THANK YOU FOR READING AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!**


	2. Chapter 2

A young cherry blossom haired nineteen year old woke with a yawn as she stretches out and glances over at her clock that reads 11:00am. The young woman sits up quickly and hurries to her bathroom and takes a quick five minute shower. Then makes a quick breakfast and heads out the door toward the Hyuuga compound.

The young pinkette steps out on the streets of Konoha in a white tube top shirt with mesh over the shoulders, making it look like a t-shirt, as well as a pair of black cargo pants, with black ninja shoes in place. A stark, snow white pair of fingerless gloves on each hand, with metal plating on the backs with the leaf in sigma etched on each. Sakura's hair flowed out behind her in waves, reaching her waist.

The pinkette was on a mission, literally, she had to ask Neji to assist her, but she already knew he would comply. It was just how it was for them, they worked flawlessly together and were one of the most lethal anbu, but together they were virtually unstoppable. This was why they had been paired on so many S-class missions together.

The feelings the pair harbored for each other, was the only issue between the two that caused skepticism. Everyone knew or at least acknowledge there being something deeper then friendship between the two, but no one knew for sure what. Mostly due to the cold reserve the Hyuuga showed to everyone outside his inner circle, while the young kunoichi kept her private life secretive from the outside world as best as possible. However the couple had as of yet not addressed the feelings they had for each other, and ended up knowing less about their "relationship" then the majority of the leaf village.

Some of the older folks, mostly the men, in the village had many rumors going around, saying that a relationship would be detrimental to missions the two would embark on due to a whole set of new feelings and emotions added to risking their lives, also for class reasons. The women of the village though thought that a green monster would be stalking the pair if they ever were to have such an intimate relationship. As each had quite the fan club, many of whom are extremely vocal and extravagant in their advances.

However there were other's that thought the pair would be the best thing to ever happen to the village, as a huge wedding would be expected if they were to become serious with as many friends and family each of them have. While others just wanted them happy and thought that they complimented each other nicely, in personality and in skill sets. Neji and Sakura however paid no mind to these rumors or the talk about themselves. They were content to allow their relationship be as it was now.

When the young woman reaches the Hyuuga compound she politely asks the guard to see Neji Hyuuga, the guard nods and leads Sakura into a waiting area. Sakura stays standing, she knows Neji won't take long, and admires the art that adorns the walls of the small sitting area.

"Sakura, what are you doing here?" a soft bell like soprano voice asks from behind Sakura, causing her to spin around a bright smile gracing her face.

"Hinata, how are you?" Sakura asks quickly making her way over the dark haired woman and hugs her. The two girls sit down on a red couch across the room and share the usual pleasantries then begin talking about what had transpired around the village.

"So you have you heard about the new restaurant down the road, it opened last month right after you left? It is delicious." Hinata asks smiling at Sakura.

"Nope, I'll have to go there; actually I came to talk to Neji. I can't train with him today, but I wanted to take him to eat lunch and ask him to help me with some stuff. What are you doing now? Maybe we could all three go there and eat." Sakura says excitedly

"Ah, I can't I'm going to eat lunch with Naruto. You will love it though, they have great dumplings. So what do you need Neji's help with?" Hinata asks politely as she leans back into the maroon cushions of the couch.

"Oh just a mission I got assigned, it's pretty simple, but I still need some assistance with it, but the rest is classified. So how is it on the relationship front? Has Naruto proposed yet?" Sakura questions giggling, sending a pretty pink blush across the young Hyuuga's cheeks as she shakes her head. The two continue talking for a few more minutes, but are soon interrupt by the entrance of a dark haired Hyuuga.

"Sakura, Hinata." Neji says nodding to the two girls on the couch, Hinata stands, followed by Sakura and the two make their way to Neji. Hinata quickly explains she has a lunch date and exits, but Sakura talks to Neji for a few minutes before explaining her situation.

"So what do you say, I'll treat you to lunch and explain what I need your help with?" Sakura questions a small smile on her lips; she really enjoyed Neji's company.

"On one condition, I pay for lunch." Neji replies a smirk on his face, causing Sakura to flush and nod in agreement. The pair then makes their way out of the compound and out into the streets of Konoha talking amiably as they went. Sakura possessed a blissful smile on her face as she continued to talk, she really had missed Neji, more then she would like to admit.

Sakura and Neji had a strange friendship; they had trained together since she turned fifteen and had grown close. After most of their training sessions they would lay in the grass and cloud watch in silence, they would lay there in the grass in silence for hours, content to simply be in each other's company.

Neji was one of the few that knew about her training with Itachi. He was an anbu captain, just like Sakura, so he was told about Itachi when he joined anbu; however it had been Sakura's decision to tell him about her training under Itachi.

The day she told him, she had been scared out of her mind, she had told Itachi about Neji almost immediately after they had begun their training together. He had seen right away that Sakura had a feelings for the pearl eyed Hyuuga, he had done his research on Sakura, a long time before he even asked Tsunade about training her.

Itachi had known about the couples training sessions and had even watched a few of them. He was actually expecting Sakura to approach him about the Hyuuga at some point, so when the pinkette had asked if she could tell the man about their training, he had simply said yes and continued with what he had been doing, resulting in the young woman gawking like a fish.

Sakura however didn't question Itachi on the matter, until a few months later, after she had introduced the Uchiha and Hyuuga. The pair had gotten along well, they had sparred and talked, and if Sakura didn't know any better she would have thought a bromance was forming between the two.

However Sakura did not venture toward the topic and after Neji departed had bluntly asked Itachi why he had agreed to meet Neji. Itachi had chuckled a smile on his face that knocked the air out of Sakura; she had never seen him smile like that.

"Sakura I have known you liked him before you knew yourself." Itachi answers smugly, shocking the cherry blossom into silence. Sakura had simply stared at him and tried to think of any time she had talked about her feelings for Neji in any way, and couldn't think of any.

"How do you know these things?" Sakura asked aghast her jade eyes huge as she flops down on the grassy hill they resided on and continues to eye Itachi as he chuckled again. The dark haired man moved toward the flabbergasted young woman and sat gracefully beside her.

"Sakura we have been training for five months now, I have known about you and that boy for over a year and a half now. Sakura I do my research, don't look surprised. Besides you wear your emotions on your sleeve, I believe is how the saying goes." Itachi quips rolling his ebony eyes, causing the pinkette to smile in understanding and nod bumping her shoulder with his earning a smile from the Uchiha.

"Well thanks for informing me about it." Sakura said sarcastically laughing lightly as she frantically looks down at the sleeve of her white training outfit aghast, but soon rolls her eyes. The two sat in an amiable silence until Itachi started teasing the pink haired woman about her crush on the Hyuuga boy, as Itachi referred to him.

Sakura smiles as she remembers how Itachi took every chance he could to tease her about her crush on Neji, but he would always end up encouraging her to tell Neji she liked him, but Sakura could never get up the courage to tell the powerful man beside her, she couldn't even fathom the possibility ruining the relationship they had now. Sakura smiles at Neji as they make it to the restaurant the Hinata had told her about earlier, the red dragon. Neji politely opens the door for Sakura and the pinkette enters, and is greeted by a hostess who smiles and asks how many.

"Two please." Sakura says a smile on her lips, until Neji steps up behind her and the woman in front of here sends a seductive little smile his way. Sakura glares at the blonde woman in front of her as she leads them to a table in the center of the room, swaying her hips to the point Sakura could tell the color of the woman's under wear underneath her tiny skirt.

"Here you go, your waitress will be right with you." The hostess titters in a sickly sweet voice, causing Sakura to roll her eyes as she notices a few of the buttons on the woman's blouse had been unbuttoned, showing a fair amount of cleavage. This was how many of Neji's admires had attempted to get his attention, all with no luck.

Sakura's only solace from this little flirt was the clear fact that Neji paid no attention to her. Sakura smiles at Neji, causing the Hyuuga to smirk as he offhandedly waves off the hostess lingering at their table.

"So Sakura, what was it you wanted help with?" Neji questions as another young busty woman walks up to their table a flirtatious smile on her glossy lips. Sakura sighs in exasperation, as she asks what they would like to drink, but only addresses the pearl eyed man, sitting across from her.

"Water for me and a sweet tea for her." Neji says never taking his eyes off Sakura, causing Sakura's inner self to die from utter happiness, while on the outside she simply smiles in thanks. The young waitress hurrying off as she notices the gorgeous man wasn't going to pay attention to her.

"Oh it's just some stuff that was left to me from a friend of ours, that I need to go through. I just needed somebody I trusted to help me with it." Sakura states off handedly a small smile on her pink lips as she stares at Neji, and he simply nods in understanding, and drops the subject and moves on to other things. The couple talk for a few minutes, not paying attention as the blonde waitress brings their drinks by.

"So have you been busy the last two months?" Sakura questions quirking an eyebrow earning a chuckle from her dark haired crush.

"Yeah, just missions, but ever since the Uchiha came back the missions have been slow. He killed Orochimaru a week before Naruto returned him to the village. He was rather willing though, after his brother's death." Neji speaks grimly watching as Sakura's emerald eyes darken in sadness at the mention of Itachi.

"Yeah I figured. It's just scraps of that snake's work running around the countries now. My team ran into quite a few strays. It's unfortunate that Sasuke decided to bring back some with him, why did the Hokage even allow that?" Sakura questions mirth in her jade eyes a wry smile gracing her pale pink lips.

"They are the reason Naruto was able to bring Sasuke back to the village, it would seem he cares more about them then we previously thought. However his punishment is still to be determined as is there's. Since they are not leaf, Ibiki will probably have the final say about them, if they want to remain here. Sasuke will be left to the elders and the Hokage." Neji explains smirking at the curiosity on the kunoichi's face, the smile a predatory look that the man immediately knows means the pinkette will be meddling in some decisions.

"Are you ready to order?" the waitress appears directing her high flirtaous question toward the white eyed Hyuuga, successfully interrupting Sakura's reply and irritating her at the same time.

"Yes I want some dumplings." Neji says nodding to Sakura a smirk forming as he notices her irritation with the waitress. Neji glances at the blonde, causing the woman to swoon slightly, resulting in a disgusted sigh from Sakura.

"I'll have the same. Oh and could you please send over another waitress that actually acts professional. I am dead serious, so don't come back. " Sakura drawls out smirking at the gawking red faced woman, as she stocks away, earning a genuine laugh from Neji, causing a blush to spread across her face.

A new waitress appears a minute later, with her clothes the appropriate length and politely takes their order, not paying Neji more attention than necessary. Sakura smiles happily at the Hyuuga, who rolls his eyes at the pinkette's antics. The duo continues talking, thanking the waitress when she brings their food to them, until the hostess leads a group of four to sit at the table directly next to the couple.

"Oh my gosh, I'm going to kill someone." Sakura says under her breath, as she glances over at Sasuke and his three followers as they sit down. The red headed woman glaring daggers at Sakura, earning a smirk from the Hyuuga as he watches irritation pass across Sakura's face.

"Karin leave her alone, you don't need to start something you can't finish." The white haired man says rolling his shoulders slipping his sword off to rest against the table.

"I can finish it." Karin fumes her glare transferring to the man sitting across from her.

"We could be forcibly removed from the village Karin, do not start trouble." The man replies fixing his purple eyes on the red haired woman, whose ruby eyes, glare daggers at him. Sakura smiles at the thought kicking the red head out of the village herself, rolling her jade eyes as Neji shakes his head at her and continues to finish off his dumplings, Sakura slowly following suit.

"Shut up Suigetsu. I can do as I please." She states turning up her nose at the man and turning her red eyes on Sakura again, causing the pinkette to lock eyes with Neji again rolling her jade eyes to rest on the annoying woman to her left. "Well at least you got over Sasuke, but I assume you whored around to get this one." Karin says smirking at the pinkette, causing Sakura's inner self to come out with a vengeance inside her head, screaming profanities.

Sakura turns her head away a genuine smile appearing on her rose lips, as Neji locks his fingers around the pinkette's from across the table. Sakura turns her head back to Karin and replies, "You shouldn't assume that other people act like you."

Sakura's reply causes the orange haired man next to Suigetsu to laugh and say "I like this girl, even if she has a childish hair color." This reaction elicits a bell like laugh from said woman and a surprised look from the people at his table.

"Jugo are you feeling ok? You have never said anything like that even on a good day." Suigetsu quires his violet eyes pinned to the orange haired man, who had a small smirk on his pale face.

"I feel fine; I simply let it be known that I like this pink haired female. She is amusing as well as powerful." Jugo replies seriously, causing even Sasuke to look surprised, and Karin to roll her eyes.

"You have got to be kidding me. Look at her she is pathetic." The red head speaks causing a pair of jade eyes to twitch at the comment, but the pinkette sighs in exasperation.

"It is obvious, by the feel of her chakra; it feels like she barely has any chakra, almost as though she was a civilian. There are few that are able to hold there chakra at that level continuously. Also if I am not mistaken she is the Hokage's apprentice and is in the bingo book." Jugo says nonchalantly his orange eyes pinned on Sakura's jade ones, the pinkette mildly surprised that he realized she was the one from her description in the bingo book.

Sakura had been in the bingo book for almost a year now, but most people didn't even realize it was her. It was a vague description, not even noting her hair color, but only that she was female, with bright green eyes, with a technique that used cherry blossom flowers as a thousand blades. It only mentioned knowledge of medical jutsu as well as precise chakra control. Sakura hadn't even realized she was in the bingo book until Itachi had brought it to her attention, but it didn't bother Sakura, she liked that they didn't know all her strengths.

Sakura smiles politely at the carrot top man and turns to Neji silently conveying with her eyes that they should leave. Neji complies, standing up nodding at the silent group of people to his right as he takes Sakura's hand again and leads her up to the front of the restaurant to pay the bill.

The couple leaves hand in hand, no other interruptions from anyone, as they make their way to the Hokage tower. Sakura smiles as they make it to the Hokage's office and Neji slowly releases her hand, letting his fingers slide across the back of her hand as she knocks on the door with her other hand, biting her lip in attempt to hold in the smile trying to make an appearance. The couple walks in to the office as Shizune opens the door for them to enter, putting a small distances between them.

Tsunade looks up from the papers in front of her and appraises the two ninja in front of her and smiles. Quickly reaching into one of the drawers and pulls out a key and a scroll and speaks "Sakura you know where the archives are, go down there five doors down and to the left. This key will open the door and this scroll exactly describes all the items in the room."

The blonde woman hands over the items and quickly waves the pair off a grin on her lips as she sees her apprentices hand latch on to the Hyuuga's the moment they step out of her office.

* * *

**Well here it is! It is shorter, but if I had kept going it would have taken alot longer to finish it, but the next chapter will be out in a week or two. I hope you enjoyed and no worries I will edit this before posting another chapter (I tend to get excited when I finish and don't look over my writing until after). Well please review! Thanks! ^_^**


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura grins her cherry locks bouncing around her shoulders as she moves down the hall way her hand latched on to the pearl eyed man's larger hand, who was quietly walking alongside her content. As the couple reaches a grey metal door, the pinkette releases the Hyuuga's hand and pulls out the gold key Tsunade had given her.

Sakura unlocks the door and slowly opens the heavy reinforced door and swiftly disengages the protective jutsus covering the room. Sakura's efforts finally revealing a library of books, scrolls, weapons, and miscellaneous items throughout the long room.

The fuchsia haired woman walks in slowly skimming the books she walks by with her finger tips, as she makes her way to the center of the room where a long rectangle table resides covered in boxes.

"Sakura, the scroll." Neji speaks finally as they reach the table, gesturing to the scroll clutched in Sakura's petite, yet powerful grip. The cherry blossom blinks and relaxed her grasp on the scroll and smooth's out the creases she had caused, biting her lip as she glances around the room at all the things Itachi had left to her.

Sakura shakes off her stupor and breaks the seal on the scroll and unravels it, showing the long list of items, Sakura scans the list again, her jade eyes locking on the one thing she wanted the most at this moment.

"He left me a letter. How am I supposed to find it?" Sakura says her eyes widening, setting the scroll down and beginning to rummage through the boxes on the table, forgetting that her Hyuuga crush was with her.

A pout adorns Sakura's face as she finishes her examination of the boxes and turns to the rows of book cases and tables of objects. "Where would Itachi put a letter?" the pinkette asks herself out loud, rubbing the back of her neck as she scrutinizes the room, trying to decide where to start.

"Sakura, calm down." A calm baritone voice interrupts her as she starts to head to her right toward a table of more boxes. The young woman blinks and jerks around her pink locks flying haphazardly around her as she turns to appraise the man, who has an understanding look in his pupil less white eyes.

The woman bites her pink lip, trying to hold back tears that fight to be released, she hadn't mourned the loss of Itachi quite yet, she had only cried once and for less than five minutes, because she had to hand in her mission scroll. Sakura blinks rapidly as she turns away from the piercing gaze of her companion, trying to keep the tears at bay. She had grown so close to Itachi and even though she knew he would be gone one day, she hadn't expected it to be so soon.

The young Kunoichi quickly puts on a strong façade and begins to turns back to the Hyuuga, but is stopped as she comes in to contact with the man in question. Her startled emerald eyes meet his compassionate snow white ones and that is all it takes for the firm foundation of her emotional armor to crumble to pieces.

Neji wraps his strong arms around Sakura pulling her close, her tears hitting his shirt as she burrows her head into the crook of his neck. The man frowns and leans down resting his chin on top of her bright pink locks letting her cry.

The pinkette mourns the loss of her precious friend for almost an hour; all the while Neji keeps close. However Sakura soon pulls herself together, she never felt bad about showing her emotions to Neji, and he always allowed it, even sometimes asked for it.

Sakura smiles as she thinks of the many times Neji had fallen victim to one of her overly emotional moments. In particular the time she had been on her period being crabby already, as well as been through training with team seven and through a ten hour shift at the hospital, which was then followed by training with Itachi, who had for some reason invited Neji to their training session that day.

The pinkette had been unbelievably grumpy and cold toward both men, when she arrived at the training area that Itachi had specified for this week's training, as it changed routinely. Sometimes he wouldn't even tell her where to go, but make her find him, which always irritated her to no end.

The two men had given her questioning looks as she walked up a cold unattached glare fixed in place, her usually bright jade eyes dark. The chipper kind medic gone and replaced, which neither man had ever seen before. Actually Sakura would usually never let anyone see her like this, normally holding herself up in her apartment, mostly because she always had murderous cramps at this particular time of the month.

Even though she was a medic, she had yet to find a way to completely relieve herself of the pains. Something Tsunade found quite humorous as she had seen one of her bad episodes, where she nearly bit the head off of a male nurse for hitting on her that specific day. The pinkette had of course apologized the following week and had asked for time off away from the hospital during those times to which the amused Hokage had laughingly agreed, as she didn't need any nurses taking up any of the available rooms themselves.

However that precise day, luck was not on Sakura's side, as it was an emergency situation, with six squads of four coming in throughout the day either poisoned or severely injured. So the medic sucked it up and healed every last one of them, and used almost half her chakra in the process. This coupled with her sparring with Naruto and Sai earlier on in the day, where the boys had sought to see who could make her blow up first. It had just been an all-around dreadful day for the young woman, who really just wanted to go home soak in a hot bath with some ice cream and possibly cry.

Unfortunately for her, Itachi expected her at exactly ten, so she had come right after she had finished fixing up the last of the injured at the hospital, her mood souring by the minute. As that days training session progressed, Sakura's irritation level rose substantially. Itachi had her doing menial jutsu and barely even move, which caused her cramps to worsen. However the snapping point for the woman was when Neji and Itachi paid her little to no mind as she performed the task required of her.

Sakura had growled low in her throat tired of this ridiculous training, when she could be at home relaxing. The pinkette stood up quickly spinning disdainfully away from the two men, who had finally turned their attention to her and had promptly disappeared.

She had soon appeared in her apartment, first grabbing the carton of ice cream out of her freezer along with a spoon, and then turned toward her bedroom while diving in to her rocky road. The pinkette changed into a tank top and some of her own shorts as she was not willing to wear any of her boy's clothes she had acquired, as she was unhappy with all of them at that moment.

The jade eyed woman made herself comfortable on her sofa, a loud knock echoes around her home. She growls and glares toward the source, all the while continuing the eat her ice cream, she really was not in the mood to deal with anything that was not ice cream or her bed at the moment.

Sakura soon decides that she is not going to move to answer the door as another louder knock penetrates the silence, as a wave of pain passes through the woman's lower abdomen, bringing her to a fetal position on her couch, her angry pained gaze still fixed on the door. When the knocking stops the medic sighs in relief, as another more poignant shot of agony rips through her and she lets out a cry of pain escape her chapped lips, as she clutches at her stomach.

"Sakura what's wrong?" a dark haired man asks appearing next to the young woman, an edge in his voice. However the reaction he gets from the woman is so unexpected he has no time to respond, as she is out of the fetal position faster than he could blink and he receives a punch to the jaw, a sickening crack resounding through the room as he hits the front door across the room, his jaw turning a sickly purple almost immediately.

"Get out of my house; if I wanted you here I would have opened the door." Sakura hisses standing her hands balled into tight fists at her side, her agitated state shocking the man, who had finally overcome the shock of having his jaw dislocated by the fiery kunoichi.

"Sakura, I just came to see if you were ok." Neji explained after popping his jaw back into place, causing him to grimace, but this response only earns a furious glare from the livid woman.

"I am fine. NOW GET OUT!" Sakura snarls emphasizing that last part, her eyes a dark almost black color as they glower at the pearl eyed man.

"No, clearly you are not fine. What am I supposed to tell Itachi, that I left you here crying in pain?" Neji asks evenly causing Sakura to tense up in response as the man stands to his feet coming almost a full foot higher then her. The pinkette growls out again for him to leave, but is only half way through a threat toward the man when a blinding pain rips through her, bringing her to her knees, her arms wrapping around herself.

Neji is quickly at her his hand on her shoulder; the simple touch elicits a shocking reaction from the pinkette as she jerks backwards away from the man her back hitting the bottom of her tan couch. The anbu captain's hand hanging in midair surprised with the reaction, the woman had never pulled away from him before even when injured on missions.

"Sakura I am not leaving. Tell me what is wrong." Neji says firmly moving toward her and picking her up off the floor and placing her on the soft couch, the woman never coming out of the fetal position, her arms staying wrapped around her abdomen like iron bars.

"I am fine, there is nothing wrong. Not get out of my house Hyuuga." Sakura hisses her head snapping up from its place against her knees, her emerald eyes cold revealing nothing, further irritating the man in front of her. Sakura had not used his last name to address him in years, and would not allow it to start again.

"Sakura, my name is Neji. Now what is wrong?" Neji demands his features showing clearly that he was not going to back down from the pink haired woman. The two stare at each other for several minutes, both never wavering until Sakura stands up abruptly and marches down the hall and into her room, then after a minute throws a box across the expanse between the pair, which lands at Neji's feet.

The man bends down and picks up the small blue box, and turns it over in his hands. His white eyes widen as he reads the large word printed across the top of the box, understanding quickly dawning on him. The man quickly advances toward Sakura's room the box still clutched in one hand, compassion replacing the irritation.

"Sakura, why didn't you just tell me?" Neji asks from her door way, tossing the box back toward Sakura, her form completely still sitting on the edge of her bed, staring at her bare feet.

"Oh, because saying 'Oh it's nothing I am acting like a this today because of freaking mother nature and her sadistic decision to place the responsibility of child baring upon the female population, thus resulting in a cycle of hell each month. It however unfortunately did not come with the warning of the intensely agonizing gutting of your in sides each month.' Oh yes that would go over well." Sakura blurts out rolling her again bright jade eyes, her irritation now gone as she looks into the amused eyes of her Hyuuga crush.

"Well you didn't need to throw a box of tampons at me." Neji jokes a smirk appearing on his pale face, causing a blush to descend on the medics face, as she looks away in embarrassment. The silence though is again broken as Sakura once again sinks into herself, letting a whimper escape her lips as she falls back on her bed.

"Stupid cramps." Sakura hisses clutching at her abdomen, trying to put enough pressure to relieve the excruciating misery she was currently being subject to. Neji chuckles lightly, which causes a cold glare to be shot in his direction, by an again irate female.

"Sakura, if you had told me this earlier I could have helped relieve you of the discomfort." Neji speaks politely not paying attention as Sakura gives him a very demeaning stare, and says a rather offhand insult as she explains she has tried everything and she was a medic, apparently she was cursed or something, or so she thought anyway.

"May I come into your room?" Neji asks inclining his head unaffected by Sakura's brazen words. Sakura stares at the man for a moment skeptically, but her inner self quickly steps in and she nods in affirmation. Neji approaches Sakura, who's cramps where still an issue, but as the powerful ninja approaches Sakura's attention drifts away from the ache in her lower abdomen and to the handsome man now right beside her; his hand mere centimeters from her stomach, looking to her for permission first, always the gentleman. Sakura nods as she removes her arms from around her stinging torso, allowing Neji access to the hurting area.

Neji keeps his eyes locked with Sakura's as he activates his Byakugan and a light blue chakra surrounds his hand as he presses it gently against Sakura's abdomen, sending a burst of chakra though her, causing the woman to inhale sharply. Sakura looks up in shock as Neji pulls his hand away a smirk on his handsome face, sending butterflies through Sakura's now calm abdomen.

"How did you do that? I have tried everything I could think of." Sakura questions befuddled as she sits up straight her irritation from the entire day gone and now replaced with curiosity.

"I shut off several of the points where your muscles tense up; they are very close and similar to chakra points. It does no damage to the body and does no harm to the menstrual process, because there are other muscles to take over the work that won't cause the pain. Also before you ask I know how to do this, it is because my mother had me do it for her a lot when I was younger, my father was actually the one to come up with it and he showed me before he died, so that I would be able to helped mother while he was away on missions." Neji explains eliciting a chiming laugh from his pink haired companion, as she throws her arms around him, almost tackling him off the bed.

"Thank you so much! Where have you been the last eight years of my life?" Sakura cries out delighted as Neji let a chuckle escape his usually aloof demeanor, rolling his eyes at the kunochi's playful behavior. Sakura smiles as she looks up but is abruptly halted in her teasing, when she notices how close they actually were, resulting her jerking away slightly and falling of the bed, ending in more chuckles from the Hyuuga, who stands up to help the pinkette up of the hard wood floor.

Sakura smiles at the memory and pulls back to look up into a pair of concerned pearl eyes that send a stampede of emotions racing through her. Sakura bites her lip but pushes away the feelings and gets to the point.

"We should really start going through all of this stuff." Sakura says licking her now chapped lips, as she pulls completely away from Neji, his warmth fading away. Neji however nods to her and turns toward the table that the scroll is laid on and begins the process, but not without giving Sakura a comforting smile. Sakura soon follows suit a smile on her lips again and the pair sifts through item after item, determining what should be done with each article, continuing on for hours, only pausing to grab some dinner.

"Sakura I found it." Neji speaks from across the room; leather bound black book in one hand, with an envelope with an Uchiha wax seal on the back in the other hand. The dark haired man watches as the tired pinkette slowly makes her way toward him, a tiny smile on her lips.

Sakura thanks Neji as he hands her the letter which she quickly tares into and begins to read, a full blown smile coming to her lips. Her jade eyes scanning the paper several times, before looking up into curious white eyes, the letter gently being folded and placed back into the envelope.

"May I see the book?" Sakura asks gesturing to the book in Neji's hands, which he willingly hands over. It's black binding smooth against Sakura's soft fingers, as she runs her hand along the engraved title.

"Sakura what is that book? I am unaware of the language or origin of it." Neji says breaking Sakura from her admiration of the object in her lithe hands, her emerald eyes snapping up to meet Neji's excitement clear upon her face.

"It's from a land far far to the north; it takes almost three months to get their running night and day at full speed. That is unless you know how to get there and know the customs and language of the land. It was such a beautiful land, no war with such peaceable and kind people. I was there for three months with Itachi." Sakura explains her gaze again captured by the book in her grasp as she slowly opens it to the first page of writings and continues talking.

"The people of that country were so powerful; they were led by a queen, who was unbelievably influential, yet so kind hearted. The country it called the gentle land or Odayakana tochi in our language. It really fits; they could easily over take many of our nations, yet do not. This book was given to Itachi directly by their queen; it is a book of fighting techniques they use and some of their most powerful jutsu. I wish you could have seen the country; it is stunning and such a peaceful place to be. I hope one day I will be able to return there." Sakura speaks wistfully as she hugs the book to her chest remembering all the things she and Itachi had done there.

Sakura however comes out of her daze smiling as she catches Neji staring at her with the 'look'. Well at least that's what the pinkette calls it, the look would always cause stampedes of buffalo in her belly, sending a pretty rose color across her cheeks. Sakura really didn't understand why she turned into jelly when he gave her that look, so soft and warm.

"Neji, Itachi left you a letter somewhere in here too. At least that's what he said in my letter, told you to remember what he told you the last time you spoke." Sakura breathes out finally shaking off the butterflies and plunging into to what she wanted to say.

"Well let's find it tomorrow, it is too late now. Come on and I will walk you home." Neji says holding out his hand to Sakura, which she gladly takes, and the pair leaves the room, locking it safely behind them, enjoying a walk through the quiet streets of their beloved home hand and hand.

* * *

**Well there it is! SORRY it is kind of late, but I was working on another story that refused to be left alone! If you want to read it it is called TROUBLE, Taylor Swift song fic! Anyway I hope you enjoy and hopefully the next chapter will be out by next month sometime! REVIEW PLEASE AND THANK YOU ^_^**


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura smiles as she stands up and stretches, closing the book on her kitchen table as she exits her kitchen as another knock sounds through her apartment, causing the emerald eyed woman to hurry toward her front door. Sakura quickly opens the door and her smile melts away as she sees a raven haired Uchiha instead of her Hyuuga crush.

"Sasuke what are you doing here?" Sakura asks her emerald eyes hard and her usually sweet voice icy as she appraises the man in front of her. Silence descends on the pair as Sasuke simply stares at the pinkette, but Sakura stands ridged unaffected by his roaming eyes.

After a few minutes of the silence Sakura rolls her eyes and turns to shut the door in the Uchiha's face, but he quickly catches the door and pushes it back open and moves on in to her apartment, leaving the bubblegum haired woman at the front door. "Oh please come in." Sakura says sarcastically as she looks outside and catches sight of one of Sasuke's anbu guards who signs to her and she nods back conveying that she was fine.

Sakura shuts her door and returns to her kitchen where Sasuke had made himself at home and was eating some of the bacon and eggs she had made a few minutes ago.

"Sasuke that is not for you, do you have any manners at all? First you barge into my apartment and now your eating food that is not for you. Now what do you want?" Sakura demands her hands crossed over her chest as she makes her way to the chair she had previously occupied and sits down pulling the book she closed earlier toward her and folds her hands on top of it.

"What happened to you?" Sasuke finally speaks ignoring her comments about the food and continues munching on bacon. Sakura blinks surprised and tilts her head to the side, pink locks falling over her shoulders.

"Sasuke what are you talking about?"

"What happened to you? You have changed; you're not the same at all."

Sakura stares and then bursts out laughing the sparkle returning to her green eyes, small giggles echoing off the pale blue walls of her kitchen, confusing the man in front of her. Once Sakura stops her incessant giggling she turns her laughing jade eyes toward Sasuke and meets his coal black eyes, so much like the one's of Itachi Uchiha who was like her brother.

"Sasuke this is so ironic on so many levels. I will tell you though why I changed so much. At first it was for you and to get you back, but that was just childish. I trained and trained and through that I found the truth. I found friends and strength in that truth and it changed me along the way. So if you came back expecting me to still chase after you like a fan girl, then I will gladly say that will NEVER happen." Sakura speaks leaning back in her chair a smile across her pale pink lips as she watches Sasuke think about her words.

"How is that ironic?"

"Well just like you I have had to look at the man, that was the reason my family was murdered, in the eye, the only difference is I did not attempt to kill him even though I could, because he's like family to me. Just like your brother." Sakura says sadly thinking of the reason her parents were killed as well as the death of Itachi, who she considered a brother.

The pinkette's parents were not ninja, but they were traveling to mist on vacation and ran into a sound ninja in combat with another ninja accidently. The chakra radiating off the two ninja had blown her parents into a lake, the chakra pressing down on them to the point that they passed out and drown. They were found by an anbu squad passing through who broke up the fight and pursued the sound ninja who was later found to be Sasuke Uchiha, fighting the Akatsuki member Kisami.

Sakura had a very hard time with the tragedy but had gotten through it, with a lot of help from her friends. Neji was the first person she had told, partly because he had found her in the woods one night crying, she had thought she had put enough jutsus up so no one would find her, but apparently not. Neji had watched her sadly when she finally noticed him, her small form covered in dirt and blood from an intense session of smashing things while crying, he had asked her what was wrong, but she had just started sobbing again and he had swiftly picked her up and whisked her away.

Neji had taken care of her for almost a week, making sure she healed herself and ate enough food. Finally after that first week the bubble gum haired fourteen year old broke down and told the white eyed fifteen year old about her parents deaths and the pair became almost inseparable for the following month, until Naruto, Sai and Kakashi returned from a mission and took up the task of comforting her.

"Sasuke I think you should leave, I need to make more food and I have things to do today." Sakura says standing up a steady stare fixed on the raven haired man, who glares at her.

"Why should I leave?"

"Well first of all if you don't, I will kick you out and second I have company coming over."

"Like you could kick me out and what is that Hyuuga coming over? Real good choice Sakura, choosing the guy that is most like me." Sasuke taunts rolling his eyes a smirk on his smug pale face until Sakura appears beside him and grabs him by the shirt hauling him to the front door. The pinkette not even noticing the resistance the Uchiha puts up and quickly opens the front door and pitches the man outside at the feet of an amused Hyuuga.

"Sasuke next time it would be wise if you do not challenge me like that, now that I have answered your question please stay away from my apartment. Hey Neji come on in." Sakura laughs and allows Neji into her house, leaving Sasuke with one parting comment, "He is nothing like you."

The fuchsia haired woman shuts the door and makes her way to the kitchen and grabs some more items to make more food. "Sorry Neji, Sasuke ate most of the food I made." Sakura says beginning to cook more food as the man just nods and sits down and watches her for the next few minutes.

"What did he want?" Neji asks finally as Sakura finishes making the food and sets a plate down in front of him, and takes a seat beside him with a plate of her own. Sakura smiles and picks up her fork and begins to eat slowly and Neji soon follows suit.

"Sasuke wanted to know why I changed so much." Sakura says nonchalantly finishing off her plate of food and standing to take her plate to the sink and continuing to speak, "Hey I need to go change, then we can go."

"Why do you need to change you look fine?" Neji questions continuing to eat his breakfast, as he watches Sakura turn around and lean against the counter top biting her bottom lip.

"These are my cooking clothes; I do not go out in them! I can't run around smelling like bacon the whole day." Sakura says like it was the most obvious thing in the world, glaring as Neji laughs.

"Is smelling like bacon a bad thing?" Neji chuckles as Sakura fixes jade eyes on the white eyed man, but she finally rolls her eyes and moves to take Neji's now empty plate. However a sudden flash of black at Sakura's feet trips her and she falls straight into Neji's lap, the plate slipping from her hand and shattering on the linoleum floor.

"You know for a kunoichi you are really clumsy." Neji states on hand on Sakura's lower back to keep her from falling back wards a smirk gracing his amused features, causing a Sakura's cheeks to turn tomato red.

"Oh whatever you try to stay standing when a wolf the speed of lightning trips you." Sakura hisses clenching her jaw to keep herself from smacking the smug smirk of the Hyuuga's face, until she notices how close their faces are. Less than an inch apart, Neji's breathe fanning out against Sakura's neck; if she just turned they would be barely centimeters apart.

"Why is she even here? I thought you said you weren't going to bring her into the village." Neji questions gesturing to the small black wolf licking up a few scraps of egg that had dropped on the floor. Sakura smiles and pushes up from Neji's lap using the table and his shoulder to pull herself up to stand finally turning to meet the pearl eyes fixed on her.

"Well I couldn't just leave Ebony out there with no one to take care of her. Now that Itachi's gone, I figured it couldn't hurt to bring her into the village; we have her trained in the basics, so she doesn't destroy anything. I am going to get together with Kiba a couple times a week and continue training her." Sakura explains moving to pick up the shards of glass on the floor, scratching the small black wolf on the head, causing the small animals excitement to rise as her tail swings back and forth faster and faster.

"She will do fine. Sakura I will get that, you should go get changed." Neji speaks leaving no room for argument as he picks up the exuberant puppy and hands her to Sakura to take with her. Sakura smiles and quickly exits the kitchen; she had found it never went well to argue with Neji.

The pinkette quickly goes to her room and sets the happy little puppy down on her bed, then races over to her closet. Sakura quickly changes into a black training dress, with red trim, and red spandex shorts and finishing it with a pair of black training shoes.

Sakura had agreed to train with Hinata today after she and Neji went through some more of Itachi's belongings. So Sakura grabs her weapons and straps on two holsters on her legs and places a few discrete weapons all over and finally straps on a basic katan on her back, but looks longingly at a beautiful black sword she so wished she could carry around all the time. Sakura sighs and tells Ebony to be good and leaves her a treat and grins as she recalls how she came by Ebony.

* * *

Sakura had been on a recon mission three months earlier and had wandered upon a small clearing and found Itachi standing on the far side near a few large rose bushes. Sakura had ambled over not even attempting to hide her presence, because not matter how hard she tried she could never hide from the Uchiha beside her.

"Itachi what are you doing?" Sakura had questioned looking over his shoulder to see a gigantic wolf dead on its side with a small black ball of fur moving around beside it. "Oh what happened?" Sakura asks sadly, she hated seeing anyone even animals injured or dead, it made her inner medic curl up and cry.

"I found a rogue fighting the creature; she was simply protecting her pups. Unfortunately before I got here he had already killed the mother and was attempting to reach this lucky little one. These wolves are a rare bread that is going extinct, but they are also the best fighting animals a ninja could ask for, so I am not surprised that he was after this pup." Itachi explains turning his ebony eyes on Sakura donned in her anbu gear.

"That is sad, but what are you going to do with the puppy?"

"I must retrieve it first without injuring it. These are no ordinary rose bushes; they are filled with a deadly poison."

"Here allow me." Sakura says a small smile returning to her face as a green chakra appears around her hands and she reaches into the vines surrounding the small animal and quickly extracts the ball of fur without harming it. Sakura smiles widely as she looks into a small pair of dark eyes as the puppy begins to cry the kunoichi hand the pup to Itachi.

"She will be very strong, here Sakura she is yours now." Itachi says handing the small creature back to a flabbergasted pinkette.

"What but I can't bring her into the village, I mean th…. Awwww she is adorable." Sakura begins trailing off as the small wolf nuzzles its fuzzy little head against her hand, causing Sakura's emerald eyes to soften.

"No need to worry I will help train her and for now she may stay with me. However she is yours, so you should choose a name."

"Alright then her name will be Ebony Rose, because she is completely black, which is strange since the wolf protecting her is grey and white, which I assume is the mother. And we found her in some rose bushes, oh and look even her little eyes are black how perfect." Sakura giggles hugging the little puppy. Itachi stood beside Sakura a smile on his thin lips chuckling as Sakura continued to cuddle the small fur ball.

* * *

Sakura smiles at the memory of Itachi and makes her way back to the kitchen where she finds the glass gone and the dishes washed, while Neji sits in a chair tracing the foreign words of the cover of the black book she had left on the kitchen table. Sakura smiles widely, Neji didn't mind cleaning, he did it all the time for his mother and he had helped her countless times to clean her home, mostly the kitchen, because she tended to experiment with food and a lot of the time it didn't go over well.

"Neji I'm ready." Sakura speaks catching the man's attention, his alabaster eyes catching sight of her and roaming down her figure, causing a light pink to overtake Sakura's cheeks. The pinkette never got use to the way he looked at her, she always told herself he looked at everyone like that but her inner self was very adamant that he defiantly did not and that look was solely for her.

Neji swiftly stands and walks over to the kunoichi, coming right into her personal space, their chests only mere inches away. Shocked emerald orbs shoot up to look into colorless eyes. Sakura inhales sharply as she sees the 'look' as Neji simply stares at her, her jade eyes drifting down to his perfect pale lips.

The couple stays like that until Neji breaks the deafening silence with a question, "Sakura what did you tell the Uchiha after you let me inside?"

Sakura turns ridged, she hadn't expected that question, but the young woman lets a small smile escape as she answers, "Oh that I just had to make sure Sasuke understood me about something he had brought up in our conversation earlier." Sakura replies cryptically not giving away that it had been about him, even though she was pretty sure the Hyuuga knew what she had said to Sasuke, he had something akin to super human hearing, and he could probably even compete with Akamaru.

The medic grins and steps closer to the man bringing them chest to chest, Sakura's fuchsia locks falling over her shoulders as she tilts her head up and asks, "I don't know though if Sasuke will believe me without proof."

Eyes unblinking neither relents as they merely stare, Sakura being the first to waver in her gaze as her inner comments on how Neji was so well built and how it would feel to have his arms wrapped around her waist lips on hers. These thoughts led to far less pure thoughts causing jade orbs to blink rapidly and Sakura to jerk back from the contact between them.

"It's a shame that I can't prove it to Sasuke quite yet though." Sakura says recovering from her foggy mind set, watching Neji as his snow white eyes pin her to the spot next to the front door, the 'look' sending buffalo trampling through Sakura's gut, causing a quiet intake of breath from the pinkette.

The Byakugan wielder advances on Sakura his eyes never wavering from her face, his hand coming up sweeping stray locks of hair behind her shoulder, his large calloused hand lightly running across her jaw. Then a smirk appears on Neji's face and he tilts his face toward a stunned Sakura and brushes his lips gently over her rosy ones.

* * *

**I would deeply appreciate a round of silent applause for the moment at the end, however I would ask all of you wonderful people out there to brace yourself for the next chapter that will be out between now and the end of march! Yea for Neji/Sakura! Also I have a new story out called Begin Again (yes it is a Taylor Swift song fic, but don't hate just appreciate), it is a Kiba/Sakura story, but it's got some love for Itachi in it as well as Sakura's lovely dog Ebony (well sort of). Anyway I will edit this before posting anymore!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Sakura are you ok?" Neji asks advancing on Sakura, causing the woman to blink rapidly bringing her out of her day dream state.

_"Did I just imagine Neji kissing me? That wasn't real_?" Sakura questions herself receiving a very loud and boisterous affirmation from her inner self, who had induced the little dream sequence of the very handsome man accepting her little jab and kissing her.

"Sakura." Neji finally demands snapping the befuddled medic out of her thoughts and instead onto the worried man not even a hairs breath away from her, just like in the little day dream.

"Oh uh, yeah we should go now." Sakura says scrambling for a way out even though her inner self is driving her on to get that kiss they both want so bad.

_"NO I am not going to instigate this. That is his job."_ Sakura thinks to herself causing her inner self to go off on a rant about freedom and power of women and their rights, causing emerald eyes to roll in annoyance as she quickly turns from Neji and heads out the door of her apartment.

The couple exits the apartment complex the pinkette slightly ahead as they start down the bustling streets of Konoha, Sakura with a frown marring her usually happy features, while Neji remains stoic. The pinkette sighs in relief as they reach the Hokage's tower, her inner battle not going well.

The pinkette tended to argue with herself a lot when it came to her relationships with Neji, a lot more lately though as he inner self had been sending her rather provocative dreams of the man, and now with a random day dream right in front of him. It had seemed so real, but that was what her inner was good at, genjustsu and it's hard to guard against a technique that essentially you are performing on yourself, albeit unknowingly, but still.

Jade eyes glance over at the calm white eyed man now leading the way through the area, she was really out of it today, she hadn't even been aware of their entering into the tower. However that tended to happen a lot because the young cherry blossom had a rather short attention span, and zoned out often, which in most situations her inner would simply take control physically such as she just had and aid her in continuing the trek to the catacombs of the Hokage Tower.

For this reasons Sakura was overwhelmingly thankful, her inner did this in situations that could have been painfully embarrassing or even deadly. Sakura smiles as they reach the door, even in her hazy mind, the thought of Itachi and all he had left her lifted her spirits. Sakura swiftly goes through the process of opening the door.

When the pair finally enters the room again Sakura moves directly toward the far wall lined in books, which had caught her attention yesterday. The pinkette not noticing as the white eyed man disappears to the opposite side of the room.

Sakura runs her fingers along the spines of each book, paying close attention to the names of each. Her emerald eyes soaking in every crevice of the book shelf her gaze locking on a few medical texts that would be helpful, then moving on to the next book shelf her attention stolen by the trove of books before her.

The fuchsia haired kunoichi finally realizes her company is not anywhere near her and jade eyes scan the area, and she heads toward the direction of the Hyuuga's position on the opposite side of the room. His form hidden behind some book shelves, but the young woman can easily sense his chakra.

Sakura turns the corner to find Neji at a table reading a letter; several books stacked up in front of him, which Sakura can see were meant for him, by the titles. The pinkette watches Neji as he is immersed in the letter, not even noticing her.

A wry smile comes to the pinkette's plump lips as she remembers how Neji use to be in the academy always serious and engrossed in his training and studies, while she had been neither interested or absorbed in much except books. The books were usually only used to impress others with her factually knowledge. Sakura grinned as she realized how far each of them had come in the past ten years, how far they could go.

A rose hue appears on the kunoichi's cheeks as she realizes she could see herself marrying Neji and going far with him always by her side. Actually the pinkette loved the idea. Sakura blinks and shakes her head at the revelation that she loved the pale eyed man in front of her, and smiles making her presence known to him, causing Neji to blink and turn his piercing gaze toward her, jade clashing with pure white.

Deafening silence fills the jutsu covered room, as the couple holds the others gaze, not blinking. The twenty year old man relents first a genuine full out smile splashing across his usually passive features, sending butterflies through the woman the look is directed at.

"So you found the letter." Sakura finally breaks the silence letting out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding. Emerald eyes still not breaking contact with the pearl eyes she was enraptured with moments ago. Neji nods in affirmation still not willing to break the silence, as he recognizes the look the bubble gum haired nineteen year old woman was sending his way.

Sakura grins as she realizes that the look she is giving the Hyuuga must be similar to 'the look' he gives her, that never cease to send stampedes of buffalo through her stomach, and a lovely flush of pink to envelope her face. Neji stands up folding the letter and carefully placing it on the table as though it was the most delicate thing in the world.

The man advances on the pinkette, this time the kunoichi smiles knowingly, she didn't need to wish this time. Sakura's inner was having a little happy dance party that ends abruptly as the handsome man came within a foot of Sakura and stops leaving a tension filled foot of space between them. Their eyes locked on each other's, having a silent conversation as they had on many other occasions, just never quite this serious.

"Sakura I know your parents are gone or I would do this differently, but I wish to court you properly. As you know the Hyuuga clan has strict rules on the act of courting, so it will lead to marriage if you agree, but I would ask that you accept my proposal and be my girlfriend." Neji speaks a wisp of a smile gracing his strong jaw, as emerald eyes widen.

Sakura bites her lip to keep from squealing, she'd been hanging around Ino far too much, and nods vigorously, finally letting out a small murmur of acknowledgment. Sakura trying to refrain from being over exuberant in her answer, but failing miserably as Neji smirks at her and she lets a small round of giggles escape as she tackles the man in a hug.

The pinkette jerks away smiling brightly at Neji and says, "Do you have any idea how long I have been waiting for you to ask me that?!"

"About as long as I have wanted to ask you? Almost five years on my end, just never thought you were ready for something this serious." Neji chuckles as Sakura's eyes turn into dinner plates, her pink lips parting, letting a gasp escape.

"WAIT you have liked me for five years?"

"No I knew I was going to marry you five years ago, I just didn't know when."

Sakura turns rosy as she comprehends what the man in front of her just said and she grins up at Neji and says, "Well it's not going to take much longer now is it?" The pinkette cutely tilts her head as she looks into the pale eyes of the Hyuuga prodigy, who smirks and catches her pink lips with his in a sweet chaste kiss.

"Come on we still have stuff to go through." Neji quips as he pulls away from the rosy medic, who simply nods in acknowledgment and begins to pull away and head back the direction she had come. Everything completely different from only a mere five minutes ago, as a smile remains glued to her lips, however the happiness falters slightly with the words Neji speaks next.

"Sakura wait, Itachi said he left you his eyes in the letter he left me, is that true?"

Sakura turns a sad smile replacing her exuberance, as she answers, "yes, Lady Tsunade has them safely locked up for now, until I decide what to do with them."

Neji's pearl eyes soften as he watches conflicted emotions race across his cherry blossoms still rosy cheeks, "What options do you have?"

Sakura sighs heavily as the buoyant atmosphere quickly disappears and darkens as the pinkette make her way back toward her Hyuuga boyfriend and gracefully sits down in a chair, as the Hyuuga takes his previous seat.

"I have many options. I can destroy them, which of course I could never bring myself to do. I can study them to see if I can emulate the process of the Sharingan without the eyes, but I have study them enough while Itachi was alive to know that is impossible and not worth the risk it could pose to whoever tests any theory gleaned from the study. Then I could always place them in another person that I trust will use them well, but I would not put the burden of the Sharingan on anyone I trust, it is a powerful tool for good, but it produces greed and lust and brings death and destruction to the user." Sakura says pausing to catch herself as she softly continues, Neji watching her intently.

"I mean look at the Uchiha clan, they were a mess and now only Sasuke is left and it still takes its toll on him. He is half blind now, and neither I nor Lady Tsunade can return his Sharingan to its original state because of his poor use of it. Itachi at least knew his limits and refrained, and because of that I was able to restore his eyes completely. I can't believe Itachi was such a fool to fight his brother with borrowed eyes; he would have easily defeated Sasuke with little force if he had not had his eyes removed not even a week prior to his fight. The audacity of the man, I can't believe what he wants me to do." Sakura trails of shakily her jade orbs misting over with angry tears.

"What did Itachi want you to do with his eyes Sakura?" Neji asks after a few minutes of silence, his eyes clouded with worry as he watches a frightened look pass over the kunoichi's face, he had rarely seen her scared, and only ever when it was truly terrifying.

"He wanted me to take his eyes and use them myself. He wanted me to replace my eyes with his; he wanted to make sure they continued to protect the Leaf village. He hinted at it when he was alive, and I always laughed thinking he was joking around, but his letter to me confirmed what I had been thinking since I found out he left me his eyes." Sakura speaks her features torn between complete agony and anger. Neji remains silent, the only tell of his surprise is the tightening of his jaw.

Emerald eyes scan the man in front of her gaging his reaction as she continues speaking her eyes hardening as she recites her thoughts from the past months, recalling many memories of Itachi.

"Itachi would always joke that he wished I could possess the Sharingan but I had too compassionate and emotion filled eyes to ever and I quote 'tarnish' them. I never thought much of it till now, because a few months ago he asked me to analyze the gene sequences that control the Sharingan and see if I could extract it. He never said why he wanted me to do it, but I did find a way to do it. I can extract the gene and incorporate it into someone else's DNA, its simple enough. The only catch is that to insert a new unknown gene into a person, their body can react badly, especially if they are a medic whose immune system is built to resist foreign invaders, but with a blood line limit such as this, blood is necessary from a family member. Which complicates things." Sakura speaks exasperates throwing her hands above her head, Neji intently listening, allowing the pinkette to spill her thoughts.

"I mean it would be best if it was the same blood type, but that's impossible since I'm O and Itachi is AB, but if it only requires a capable medic to keep the cells from attacking each other and killing the patient, so not the biggest issue. It's just I would need minimum of two pints of blood to make this work and while I'm sure Tsunade took some blood from Itachi I doubt it's not near enough to make this procedure work. It would be best to do almost a total blood transfusion, but five pints would do the job nicely too, ahhhhhh why did Itachi even want me to do this." Sakura finishes her head hitting the table top, groaning.

"Sakura, there is an Uchiha in the village the only one left actually. Also if you don't want to do this you don't have to."

"Well what do you think I should do?" Sakura asks wide jade eyes pinned to the pale eyed man who chuckles at the comical position of the cherry blossom. Pink locks strung across a pale face and shoulders, her lips pressed flat as Sakura bites the inside of her cheek, her stunning green orbs shining brightly.

"Sakura this is your decision, I will support you in whatever you decide. There are pros and cons to both and I already know you have gone through them."

"Yes I have gone through every angle of this and that is why it does involve you. Were you serious earlier about wanting to marry me eventually?" Sakura questions straightening her back her eyes hardening.

"Of course."

"Well then it does involve you, because if I do this and it is successful, then I will possess a blood line limit, which will be able to be passed on to future generations. That means if we were to have kids, they could potentially have the Sharingan instead of the Byakugan, now that could cause some issues, don't you think. I could just see it, a dark haired Hyuuga boy running around with blood red eyes." Sakura quips sarcastically her eyes locked with pupils white a silence descending on the couple as they simply stare at one another.

"Hn, I'm glad you don't think our son will have pink hair, now that would be frightening." Neji replies a grin marring his usually stoic features, causing a small smile to spread across his fair skinned companions face.

"Neji I'm serious." Sakura says half-heartedly, because the thought of their children melts the kunoichi to the very core. Sakura smiles as a deafening silence again collapse upon the pair, but is broken as Sakura's inner blurts out the thoughts on their kids, causing Sakura to break into a full blown smile, forgetting her question as she chuckles to herself, her emerald orbs leaving Neji as she leans back in her seat.

"I'm going to take a moment and be very conceited and say if we ever have kids they are going to be the most adorable children to grace the land of fire." Sakura speaks repeating the thoughts of her inner self to a t earning a real laugh from the powerful man as he stands up and moves to stand in front of Sakura. Neji offers her his hand, which she gladly takes and he easily pulls her to her feet their chest less than an inch apart.

"Indeed they will." Neji answers before softly brushing his lips across Sakura's, causing jade eyes to flutter closed as he slowly deepens the kiss, tenderly intertwining their hands. As the pair pulls apart Neji again speaks, "Sakura, whatever you decide I will support you, but just take time and think about it. So how about we go out to the training grounds, get your mind off of all of this for a while. Tenten said a bunch of the rookies would be out there today."

The young kunoichi smiles fondly up at the man and nods as she answers, "Sounds great. It's a good thing I have you to make quick concise decisions, because that's one thing I am not good at. I feel like Itachi has taken it upon himself to reveal every flaw I have, it's very irritating."

"Yes I know, but once you know that it's a flaw, you can fix it. You have no problem making decisions in the hospital or on missions, just in everyday life, so it's not terribly life threatening." Neji chuckles as he leads his cherry blossom toward the door, which she quickly seals up, and the pair makes their way hand and hand through the Hokage tower and out into the streets of Konoha.

"Yeah, I know doesn't mean I have to like it." Sakura answers sassily as the couple leisurely treks across the village, receiving many surprised as well as overjoyed looks along the way, as their hands remain wrapped around each others.

"Ok so maybe I'm a bit naïve or blinded sometimes to, because I feel like everyone around us knew we were going to get together long before we did. I could have sworn those women were just passing around winnings from a bet about us." Sakura says quietly so only Neji can hear, her keen eyes scanning the crowds of bustling people many of whom are focused on the couple.

"They did, we may share a flaw of not being able to accept what's right in front of us. I'm sure our sensei's have a bet going as well." Neji replies not showing any reaction to the onlookers, as Sakura sends him a surprised look.

"Well it did take me like two years to admit to myself that I actually liked you and that was partially due to Itachi's prodding me about it. Okay this is ridiculous, I have had enough of the gawking civilians can we hurry?" Sakura requests tilting her head as she looks up pouting toward the handsome Hyuuga, who rolls his eyes, but quickly steers them to a small alley way and they immediately take to the roof tops, unwillingly releasing each other's hands so as to move faster.

The two ninja quickly reach the training grounds to find all of the rookies along with team Gai, and all the sensei's, and even Sasuke and his three companions, in the training area. Sakura looks pointedly at Neji, before dropping from the tree she was hidden in, catching everyone's attention, several spars ceasing due to the pairs entrance.

Neji drops down beside Sakura not a second later, their shoulders brushing slightly, as they receive several greetings from their friends. The girls being rather pushy and loud as they notice the proximity the couple stays in when they reach the group of people at the center of the large training ground.

"Hey pig, no need to be so loud, all Konoha can already hear you." Sakura says grinning trying to shut her loud mouthed friend up,

"Whatever, so what's new with you, forehead girl?" Ino questions raising an eyebrow her eyes shifting between Sakura and Neji suspiciously, along with the other girls.

Sakura tilts her head shifting her position to predatory as she steps slightly closer to Neji, causing their hands to brush together, the pinkette grinning like a chasseur cat as she does so, earning a wide eyed look from the kunochi's in front of her. "Oh you know everything and nothing at the same time." Sakura finally answers, earning a delighted squeal and peals of laughter from the girls.

Sakura had always promised Ino, Tenten, and Hinata she would tell them first if she were ever in a relationship. So the girls had come up with a code phrase if they were in a crowded area to be the answer. The girls had been asking Sakura for years now "what's new" and it had always been a reply of "nothing much" until today. The girls had received the sought after reply of "everything and nothing."

The three girls mob Sakura and Neji talking a mile a minute, the Hyuuga staying as stoic as ever, as Sakura smiles talking just as fast. Everyone else is left confused in the background as the group of kunoichi's excitement overtakes them that is until a very snobbish voice breaks through the chorus of high pitch voices.

"What is this some kind of ugly girl ritual to attract attention?" a smug red head says from the edge of the group to the girls left, earning three angry glares, while the pinkette just smiles brightly.

"Oh of course not, why would any of us need attention? We simply bask in the glow of the attention from the men here all the time, but that is really beside the point. Maybe this rude and snobbish attitude stems from an insecurity you harbor. I think you really want to fight me but you're too scared to actually do it, because you know you'll lose. So please for everyone's benefit cut the crap and challenge me." Sakura drawls sarcastically her emerald orbs trained on startled ruby ones, as the people around the two slowly move back leaving the two women in the middle of the field facing each other silent as the grave.

Sakura rolls her eyes as she receives no reply and laughs as she speaks, "Ok if you want I'll fight you blind folded and I won't use my chakra. How's that sound?" This response earns a hard glare from the red head and a chuckle from Juugo who actually smiles at the bubble gum haired medic approvingly.

"I don't need pity; I'll fight you with your sight and chakra." Karin finally says confidently, her eyes hardening, still a flash of fear sweeps across her features, eliciting a cat like smile from Sakura as she shifts back into a defensive position, Karin following suit. The audience staying completely silent as the women face off.

"Hmmm well then I'll fight you like I would fight anyone else here." Sakura concedes, earning a few whispers from the sidelines.

Karin glares as she hears the whispers of her coming defeat, fear vanishing from her features as she swiftly charges the pinkette. This earns the red head a smile from Sakura and several kunai, which Karin easily dodges, but Sakura soon disappears, leaving Karin standing defensively in the clearing.

Sakura reappears behind Karin, bringing a kunai across her throat ripping through the red heads clone easily and aiming several kunai at the women hiding in the trees to her right hitting her in the shoulder and drawing Karin back to the middle of the grounds.

"Well first off, you need to make your movements fluid and not so choppy, it's harder to see jutsu if it happens in a simply movement instead of several. Also your defense is weak and your genjustsu suck. You might want to work on it." Sakura speaks as she earns an angry hiss from Karin who wrips the kunai out of her shoulder and charges again, the pinkette smiles and appears beside her grabbing the collar of the woman's shirt and slamming her into the ground, creating a small crater.

"You know you don't stand a chance and I don't usually like to embarrass people so just stop for a second and listen to what I have to say." Sakura whispers so only Karin can hear tilting her head slightly toward the crowd of people, her fuchsia locks blowing softly around her shoulders.

"fine." Is the curt reply Sakura receives, but it is enough for her as she releases her tight grip on the woman's throat moving to sit Indian style across from her instead.

"Good, now I have cast a genjustsu, so they won't see or hear us. Don't look surprised, remember I told you to be fluid, when I turned to look at that lot over there I cast it without anyone knowing, of course the fact that in the jutsu your still standing might give me up but whatever." Sakura says good naturedly grinning at the befuddled look on the woman in front of her.

"Why are you doing this?" Karin asks blinking shocked at the pinkettes change in mood.

"Oh you know bored and stuff but mostly to help you out. Just don't ask and I'll explain." Sakura says receiving an affirmative from the woman and continuing on, "Ok so you need to get over Sasuke, he is not good for you, I mean you could be training or shopping, heck even scoping out other guys. I mean you have a perfectly good looking, far more interesting man right beside you with stunning purple eyes, but that is not what I want to focus on just a thought though. I actually need your help." Sakura finishes getting a very surprised reaction from the woman across from her.

Pink hair flies around petite shoulders as the wind picks up, the both kunoichi sitting in the crater cross legged talking. Going unnoticed by the onlookers, Sakura's jutsu doing its job nicely as the girls talk for a few more minutes before standing to their feet.

"So you're in?" Sakura asks again dusting herself off as she moves about ten feet back from the pale faced red eyed woman, who simply nods affirmatively. The pink haired medic grins as she speaks again, "ok then it's settled, but you do know how this little fight has to end right?"

Karin cringes as she nods removing her glasses and shifting into a defensive position as the pinkette grins devilishly as she says, "don't worry I'll heal you afterwards" Sakura then proceeds to charge the red head quicker than the woman could blink and punches her with a chakra laden fist, sending Karin rocketing through the forest.

Sakura hides a smile as her inner self quips that "she had deserved that" before turning to her friends. Many of whom are laughing or rolling their eyes at the medic nins antics.

"If someone will retrieve her I'll heal her." Sakura says grinning as Juugo takes off to retrieve Karin, causing Sakura to smile genuinely at the man as she makes her way toward Neji, who raises an eyebrow in question, which Sakura simply shakes her head to silently say she would explain later. Sakura however smiles brightly at her friends and just knows she is going to enjoy the coming week immensely.

* * *

**So ummmm, what you think? Kinda late, but hopefully I'll get the next chapter out this month. There will most likely only be max four chapters more, but probably two or three is what I am aiming at, if not well more love to share! Please REVIEW and I will edit this chapter and get the next one out as soon as I can!**


	6. Chapter 6

Konoha's fierce cherry blossom sat grumpily in the middle of her living room at three in the morning, her five foot eight figure adorned in naught but underwear and an oversized men's shirt. A hard glare directed toward the intruder in front of her, his arms and legs covered in various scratches and bruises, with a moderately severe gash running from his shoulder to his hip, his clothes covered in mud and blood, his eyes morphing from blood red to pitch black. His stance in front of Sakura predatory, yet the kunoichi doesn't even flinch.

Sakura had felt Sasuke's chakra from five miles away, but had not thought him to be of any danger and so had remained in bed until said man appeared in her bedroom demanding to be healed, which of course the medic refused to do until he asked her properly. The fiery young women not letting up an inch, as blood continued to flow from his wounds; the medic wouldn't be surprised if he had some broken ribs as well. Sasuke's chakra had been erratic before, but now it was getting heavy and dark as he glared down at the petite woman.

However Sakura knew she would have no problem subduing the man, he was already injured and she knew what he really wanted. This had been her plan all along to get him to come to her, but she hadn't expected him to come at three in the morning to her home.

Her plan had been relatively simple, at least she thought so, but she apparently hadn't for seen this outcome. Sakura had talked Karin into telling Sasuke a few things, to make him angry enough to come search for the pinkette to get answers. However it looked as though Karin had been a little too free with her words.

Sakura had only asked the red head to tell Sasuke about her acquaintance with Itachi. Karin had met Itachi a few years before meeting Sasuke and had been smitten with him, which is partly why she liked Sasuke so much. Karin had found out early on that Itachi was not as bad as he seemed which Sakura had found out from Itachi himself.

Itachi had told Sakura of the few times he had encountered Karin, she was hard to forget with thee red hair and eyes. The first he had saved her life from rogue ninjas, the seconded time a year later he had saved her from Orochimaru's Hench men, but Karin had been caught not even a month later. These two instances had been brief with little to no words being spoken; however the third time Itachi came across Karin she was training many years later. He had watched her and had not been impressed for he was to kill her, as she was in charge of one of Orchiamarua's many hide outs. As it were Itachi had simply dropped from his hiding place, scaring the ruby eyed girl and had asked her simply to leave, for he was going to destroy the hideout beneath their feet. Karin had been stubborn and refused and Itachi had then destroyed the hideout and removed Karin from the blast area leaving her a few hundred yards from the decimated area.

The last encounter however had been a few week before Sasuke's defeat of Itachi, which Itachi had only written about in his letter to Sakura. Sakura had been furious at first, but her anger soon relented as she thought over the description Itachi had given of the occurrence.

Itachi had sought out Karin, easily separating her from the three men she traveled with successfully. He had then proceeded to explain his actions toward Sasuke to the red head, revealing to the ginger girl why he had killed his clan. Giving the woman all the details he could without revealing the leaf village's secrets, knowing that his pink haired prodigy would fill in the remaining details in full. The powerful man, who had the strength to easily defeat his brother, had planned to die by his little brother's hand, but not without the knowledge that one day his brother would know the truth.

Karin for some reason had believed Itachi, as he had shown her evidence of it, but her acceptance was mostly due to Itachi's compassion for her in that he spared her life when he did not need to on three separate occasions. The red head had been quiet when Sakura had finally asked her to slowly start to reveal things about Itachi and their encounters to the Uchiha two days earlier, but had finally given in and agreed to her plan.

Karin was only supposed to say she knew that Sakura had also come into contact with Itachi various times after revealing her encounters with the man. It worked Sakura figured, but the kunoichi felt as though the red haired woman had said more than she should have from the look of death on the Uchiha's face.

"Sasuke all you have to say is 'Sakura will you heal me,' not even please." Sakura finally breaks their death stare off to address the wounded man looming over her, "How did you get this beat up anyway? The anbu certainly wouldn't let you wonder to far outside the village."

The pinkette sighs after a few more minutes of silence and stands up and yanks the proud man down onto the couch, smacking his hand away as he tries to pull away from her grasp, sending a jolt of chakra through the man stunning him. The women then sets in to heal the gash on Sasuke's chest first, allowing the minor cuts and bruises to be left for last, as it takes less than five minutes for the medic to heal Sasuke completely.

"Sasuke what are you really doing here? These wounds were hardly deep enough to want to be healed from, they probably would not have even scarred. Now out with it." Sakura speaks sarcastically moving to the opposite side of the couch, folding her legs underneath her, the baggy navy blue men's shirt now covering her fully.

Sasuke's eyes bleed red, the pin wheels spinning wildly as he hisses out, "That's Itachi's shirt." The bubble gum haired woman blinks rapidly surprised as she quickly looks down at the shirt she was wearing, her emerald orbs wide, and her hand reaching behind her to touch the Uchiha symbol stitched on the back of her navy shirt.

"WHY DO YOU HAVE ITACHI'S SHIRT ON?!" Sasuke almost yells standing up again looming over the smaller woman, who scrunches her eyebrows together in thought, not showing the least bit interest in the furious man above her.

"Ohhhh….I forgot about this, I'm so use to wearing it I hadn't even thought to change. So stupid." Sakura mumbles to herself, she tended to steal the men closest to her clothes, before looking up at the man and answering him, "Sasuke sit down and I will explain. If I have to ask again I will not say another word."

The unhappy raven haired man glares as he slowly takes a seat on the couch, turning to face the slightly flustered kunoichi angry chakra radiating off him. The two sit quietly as Sakura analyzes the young man beside her, her mind racing a mile a minute.

"Sasuke I have known your brother for a while, almost two years." Sakura speaks her words causing Sasuke to tense up, but the cherry blossom charges on in her explanation, "Sasuke your brother never betrayed to the leaf village. Now I know you're going to object to everything I say, so please just keep it to yourself or I will not tell you everything. Good, well Itachi first of all was training me." Sakura continues as she receives a hard given acknowledgement from Sasuke, who sits stone still as Sakura tells him of her and Itachi's relationship.

Sakura goes into the information on the Uchiha wanting to take over the village, starting with the nine tailed demon release to Madara Uchiha's involvement, revealing everything she could to Sasuke. Sakura finishes her explanation half an hour later, and stands to her feet telling Sasuke to wait for her to come back.

Sakura soon returns a letter clutched in one hand, as she sits back down, "Sasuke, Itachi left me everything he had, and it is surprisingly a lot. He left me a letter to give to you, I don't know what he wrote, and he only said that I should give it to you when I thought it was best. I'm going to give it to you now, but please don't read it tonight. Think about what I have told you and wait until you come to your own conclusion on all the information I gave you and then read it." Sakura says compassionately, as Sasuke takes the envelope she holds out to him, and quietly stands moving toward the door, quickly exiting Sakura's house not uttering a word.

Sakura exhales and begins to turn her lights out and reset traps she had disarmed when she had sensed Sasuke coming. The tired pinkette smiles as she finally gets back into bed, knowing her plan had been a success and Sasuke would eventually accept the truth, when she did not quite know, but she just knew the younger Uchiha would accept it sooner or later. The young woman soon fell into a deep sleep a small smile resting on her pale pink lips.

* * *

Sakura stretched leisurely as she cooked pancakes on the stove, today was a special day, well at least she thought it was. The pinkette was to be formally introduced to the Hyuuga elders as Neji's future spouse, as the courtship had been announced two months ago the day after the couple had officially decided on their relationship. Now the cherry blossom had been to many formal dinners as well as informal over the past month with Neji, his Uncle and his mother. Sometimes there would be several people other times it would just be Sakura, Neji and Hiashi.

There were of course no objections to the couple, as all of the Hyuuga's adored Sakura, particularly Hiashi, but the formal announcement was a custom, one that the young kunoichi looked forward to. All of the Hyuuga clan, as well as other prominent clan leaders and ninja, the Hokage and even the Kazkage and his family would be in attendance.

Sakura would essentially be the center of attention the entire evening, with only a slight spotlight being shown on Neji, so needless to say she was a complete an utter nervous wreck. The kunoichi of course hid this over powering nervousness well, not allowing anyone to see her shaken, which is why she was making pancakes at seven in the morning, she cooked when she was nervous a fact only two people on the planet knew and one of whom was now dead. Sakura smiled sadly as she recalled how Itachi had found out about her Nazi cooking sessions when she was nervous or anxious about anything.

* * *

It had been a few weeks after Sakura's first encounter with Itachi, and he had finally contacted her about beginning training. The pinkette was on edge as she had been waiting almost a week for Itachi to show up. His letter had said he would come this week, but had not found it necessary to put a date or time on which he would arrive, which had set the kunoichi's nerves on edge.

The cherry blossom had been fine at first only tense and prepared, but as the week went on it got far worse. The seventeen year old had begun to cook, at first just her regular meals, not going out to eat, but then it had lapsed into her kitchen being filled to the brim with all kinds of baked goods, ranging from cookies, cake, and pie to scones and cinnamon rolls and more. To say the least all of her neighbors within a mile radius could smell the goodies, some of whom had come to investigate earning them a pile of sweets.

Sakura had trained earlier that with Neji, who had caught on to her anxious behavior and had asked her what was wrong. The pinkette of course had quickly shaken the scrutinizing gaze of the Hyuuga off saying it was only issues at the hospital. Neji had seemed to believer her lie at the time but as she was leaving he had called out "Sakura if you're going to be cooking the rest of the day, my Mom has always loved your fried pies." This had earned a grin from the woman as she waves in parting.

The pinkette of course had immediately set to work making fried pies when she reached her home, filling heart shaped pie dough with strawberries, sugar and cream cheese and frying the little hearts to a warm golden brown. When she had finished, she had two dozen heart shaped strawberry fried pies wrapped up in a basket along with two more baskets full of cookies, cupcakes and cinnamon rolls.

As the pinkette was about to leave her home to deliver the baskets of delicacies to the Hyuuga compound, when Itachi appeared directly in front of Sakura blocking the door way of the kitchen, causing the woman to jump, knocking a few cookies onto the floor.

"Hmmmm, so this is what you resort to when you get nervous." Itachi's smooth baritone sweeps across Sakura's senses, sending a shiver down her spine as she freezes in her place beside her kitchen table, as Itachi grabs a red velvet cheesecake cookie and taking a bite of it. "Very good." Itachi speaks referring to the cookie he had just consumed, smirking as jade eyes widen in surprise and then turn hard in anger.

"You waited so long to come to see if I had a nervous tell." Sakura hisses glaring daggers at an amused Uchiha.

"Indeed, and you do have one, although not one that would be dangerous in battle. The Hyuuga earlier caught on to your behavior partly because you smell of baked goods." Itachi replies nonchalantly watching as anger again flashes through quickly darkening green eyes.

"You were spying on me?!" Sakura shrieks outraged her hands tightening dangerously around the baskets of sweets in her hands.

"Of course. Now I will be back here tomorrow same time, you should get those deserts to the Hyuuga's without destroying them." Itachi speaks quickly disappearing in a puff of smoke, leaving a furious bubble gum haired woman behind.

* * *

Sakura grinned as she flipped the cinnamon roll pancakes onto a plate drizzling icing over the top of them. Her kitchen counters covered with French toast, waffles, muffins, fruit and different kinds of bread. This however wouldn't be seen as strange to others, as there was about to be a swarm of women in her home starting at eight in the morning until the beginning of the ceremony. Ino, Tenten, Hinata, Temari, Shizune, Anko, Kurenai and even Tsunade would be in Sakura's home throughout the day, assisting the cherry blossom in getting ready as well as getting themselves ready.

Sakura figured she would just feed them all and still have some leftover for Naruto and the other guys when the girls were finished.

Sakura knew Naruto would be over sooner or later, because he was just as nervous as she was, he just physically showed it more than the kunoichi. This would be a huge event for him and Hinata as well as he had decided to soon ask Hinata to marry him and he hadn't really attended many of the Hyuuga family's functions.

Sakura smiles as she hears a knock at her front door, the woman quickly fixing herself as she goes to answer the door. Sakura pulls the door open revealing a cheery red haired woman, causing a frown to appear on the medics face as she narrows her jade eyes.

"Karin what are you doing here?" Sakura questions remaining as calm and collected as possible her already frayed nerves sting to be cut, as Jade eyes drill holes into the intruder. Sakura only wanted her close friends around for her own sanity.

"hmmm, well you see apparently Sasuke needs something nice to wear for tonight and he asked me if I would get some nice clothes for him, and since actually asked and even went so far as to say please I said I would, but I don't know of any nice clothing stores for men, and the only person I knew would be up this early would be you." Karin says hastily, seeing the irritation on the pinkettes features. The two women had a far better relationship since their combined efforts to make Sasuke see the light about his brother, so they could be amiable in most situations, but they were no were near the point of being friends.

"Well alright come in, I actually might have something he could wear." Sakura pauses thinking for a second before offering the woman entrance into her home. Karin nods and swiftly enters the warm house, her eyes widening as she sees the assortment of foods across the kitchen and dining room tables and cabinets.

"Wow, you made a lot of food, it looks so good." The ruby eyed woman says eyeing the cinnamon rolls at the center of the kitchen table a few feet from the pair.

"Yeah, there are going to be a lot of people in and out of her today, so I made food for an army. Help yourself." Sakura says allowing a small smile to alight her pale lips as Karin goes straight for a cinnamon roll followed by a waffle once she retrieves a plate off the kitchen cabinet. "So did Sasuke really say please?" Sakura asks handing Karin a fork for the waffle.

"Yeah, it was weird. Ever since he read some letter a week ago he has acted so strange. I don't know, he cared the letter around ever since last month sometime and he did not read it until last week. I guess the contents of it were important." Karin explains pausing in between bites of her waffle to tell Sakura about Sasuke's strange behavior, only earning a wide smile from the cherry blossom.

"Hmmm that is very interesting, so he has been politer then?"

"Yes very much so. He had not uttered a word that was not polite since he read it and his demeanor has changed too, it's almost a sad acceptance of something. It's very morose sometimes and other times it's like he is a normal man instead of the last Uchiha, like some burden has been lifted." Karin explains her bright red eyes' watching as Sakura takes in the information, silently acknowledging that the young kunoichi had something to do with the change in the last Uchiha.

"Ok well I'm sure it's all for the better but I'll be right back." Sakura says suddenly turning and moving toward the back of her house, leaving Karin to continue eating. The pinkette however returns not two minutes later a clothes bag in her arms and a big smile on her rose lips.

"Here, I think Sasuke will find this suitable to wear tonight." Sakura speaks unzipping the bag to reveal an Uchiha dress robes in perfect condition, its navy blue color contrasted by the Uchiha symbol on the back.

"Oh he definitely will. How did you get this and how did you know his size?" Karin says after she puts her plate and fork in the sink and moves to look at the suit, surprise radiating off of her in waves.

"It is technically his, a gift from his brother."

"Oh I see, well thanks for the food and I'll be sure to deliver this to Sasuke unharmed." Karin says zipping the bag back up and taking the clothes from lithe hands, a compassionate smile on her lips as she understands the magnitude of the gift. These are the robes of a clan leader.

"Yes do that and have fun on your date with Suigetsu." Sakura quips as she shows the now blushing red head out, only to see a blonde standing poised to knock on her door, with three other women in tow.

Karin smiles at the women and quickly disappears in a flurry of leaves, leaving Ino, Tenten, Hinata and Temari behind with an amused Sakura. The four kunoichi make their way into Sakura's home asking questions a mile a minute, which Sakura gladly answers as best she can until the women are silenced by the food that greets them as the reach Sakura's kitchen.

"Sakura you are amazing." Temari speaks first moving into the kitchen to grab a plate, her four ponytails bouncing as she moves, the other women quickly following her example and digging into the food. Sakura smiles and joins them and the five women eat and talk for the next hour.

"Ok Sakura go shower in your bathroom. We will clean this up and get all our stuff set up." Ino orders flipping her long tresses over her shoulder, baby blue eyes piercing the fuchsia haired woman who only rolls her eyes and obeys her bossy best friend.

The pinkette makes her way to her bedroom closing the door behind her and turning toward her bedroom window, lifting it up easily and letting the man in the tree outside her window enter her bedroom.

"Sasuke what are you doing here?" Sakura questions turning and grabbing some clothes from her dresser, as the raven haired man stands silently near the window. Dark eyes watching every move the kunoichi makes.

"Sasuke if this is about the clothes I gave Karin, they were from your brother, I just held onto them for you."

"I'm sorry." Sasuke speaks after a moment, causing Sakura's emerald orbs to widen the woman slowly moving to sit down on her bed to listen to what the Uchiha was going to say, because he clearly had something to tell her.

"I am sorry that I was such an idiot, I regret killing Itachi so much. I wish I could change so much, but I wanted to honor one of my brother's last wishes if you want it" Sasuke speaks his dark eyes sad as he watches confusion alight the woman's face.

"What is it that you want to do? Itachi had a lot of things he wanted to get done."

"In his letter he said he gave you his eyes. He said there was a procedure to allow you to possess the Sharingan and he asked me to help in any way I could." Sasuke answers his gaze now focused on the woman, completely serious.

"Well yes, but I haven't even decided if that is what I want yet." Sakura speaks hesitantly after a moment still trying to absorb the drastic change in the man's demeanor.

"Sakura, there is a chance if you do this you can pass on the Sharingan and I don't believe I ever will, so please do it, it was Itachi's last wish. He saw you as his little sister and believed you would be able to utilize our eyes for the good of the village, unlike me." Sasuke says the sadness seeping not only into his ebony eyes, but into his rough baritone voice. Jade orbs taken in the look of hurt and mourning covering the Uchiha and compassion takes hold of the pinkettes too big heart.

Sakura stands quickly and wraps her lithe arms around Sasuke's torso, surprising the man, but not stopping him from returning the embrace. They stand like that for only a moment before Sakura feels warm tears hitting her neck, were Sasuke had bared his face. This causes small arms to tighten around the man, her own eyes glazing over with a film of tears left unshed for Itachi.

The two ninja stand there crying together over the loss of Itachi for five minutes, until the lone Uchiha pulls away his ebony eyes slightly blood shot along with now blood shot jade. The man smiles genuinely at his former team mate and says grinning "You know technically when you get the Sharingan I can make you part of the Uchiha clan, I bet that would upset the Hyuuga."

Sakura holds back laughter as she rolls her eyes at the raven haired man, he was starting to sound like he use to but a little more open. Jade eyes light up mischievously, as she quips, "Well I wouldn't mind, but you know changing my name twice in one year might be a little much."

Sasuke rolls his eyes as but turns serious soon after, "Yeah but besides that I would like it if you would become an Uchiha, even if it's only for a little while. As I said I don't think I will have an heir, but I bet you will."

"Sasuke Uchiha! You will get married and give me some nephews and nieces; you will soon be the most eligible bachelor around, once I marry Neji." Sakura says sassily holding up a Hyuuga necklace symbol that is used in courtships.

"Sakura, unlike most people think I don't want just any girl with the right genes to have my kids, I actually want someone I actually like."

"Awww, you want to fall in love!" Sakura coos causing a light pink to alight Sasuke's pale cheeks, but still evoking a chuckle from the man.

"Whatever you say, but I better go the Hyuuga has been waiting for his turn with you for a while. Thank you Sakura, for everything." Sasuke says in parting hugging the surprised pinkette lightly before disappearing out the window to be replaced by Neji a second later.

Sakura smiles as Neji asks if he can enter her room, which she hardily agrees too. The pale eyed man soon standing not a hairs breath away from her, his calloused hand coming up to touch her cheek lightly before placing a loving chaste kiss on her rose lips.

"You have been crying." Neji states after pulling away from the woman, his eyes searching her for any injury or sign of mishap and finding none. "You're in your cooking clothes."

"Ha-ha yeah I made a bunch of food that the girls are enjoying downstairs. That's not important though what are you doing here?" Sakura answers avoiding the first statement in favor of the second.

"I was going to get Naruto, when I passed by and felt the Uchiha's chakra here, so I came to see if everything was alright." Neji explains his fingers intertwining with Sakura's as he scans the room this time.

Sakura smiles as she explains Sasuke's presence, rolling her eyes as she sees a slight wave of irritation pass over Neji's features at the mention of her becoming an Uchiha. The two talk for a few more minutes when Sakura finally tells him her decision.

"So I think I am going to go through with procedure with Sharingan. I have gone over it and the only way for the eyes to be of a lot of use is to have them myself. I mean there has never been a Sharingan wielder that was a medic, who knows what could be achieved with such a technique, easier surgery and less trouble with patients. I don't know, but I think it will be worth it." Sakura speaks excitement radiating off of her as she bites her lip waiting for Neji's response, which soon comes.

"Good."

"That's all you're going to say? Nothing else?"

"No."

"Ok and what if Sasuke wants to make me an Uchiha do you have a problem with that?"

"No."

Sakura glares icily at the pearl eyed man, her excitement replaced with irritation in the blink of an eye. The pinkette's temper was always a problem and combined with the stress of the day and the previous events, she was ready to explode on some one. However Neji sees this and quickly assesses the situation and replies promptly.

"Sakura, I told you before this is your decision and I will support you. I know you're stressed about today, I can tell by how much you have cooked, but you have nothing to worry about. The elders won't be crazy about you having the Sharingan but they will get over it. And if you do become an Uchiha by integration, then that is completely fine, you will be a Hyuuga eventually if I have it my way." Neji says a grin appearing on his usually stoic features, eliciting a bright smile that only he could pull from the young kunoichi.

"Hmm, ok, well unless you want me to stress more, you will let me be so I can get ready." Sakura finally concedes after a minute. Neji nods in understanding and steals a feather light kiss before disappearing out the window, leaving a glowing pink haired woman behind.

Sakura grins and mumbles to herself, "This is going to be interesting."

* * *

**Sooooooo, what do you think? I had way too much fun writing this and it did not go in the direction I had previously thought it would, but I really am happy with it! I will edit before the next chapter, which may or may not be the last one, who knows. **


	7. Chapter 7

Four months later a bright pink haired woman lies groggily in a hospital room, her lithe figure adorned in a hospital gown. The blinding white walls of the hospital contrasting against an array of brightly colored flowers filling every space in the room, ranging from sun flowers to rainbow colored roses, even a small bouquet of cherry blossoms, from the children in the academy, adorned the room.

Pearl eyes keeping a constant watch over the exhausted cherry blossom throughout the week long stay in the hospital in recovery from her twelve hour surgery. The process of placing the Kekkei Genkai gene into Sakura's DNA not being overly dangerous but mostly time consuming. They had to be very precise in every aspect of the surgery, only allowing the best medics in the room with the Hokage herself heading up the surgery. Over the last months acquiring as much blood as possible from Sasuke, who complied readily after hearing of Sakura's decision, surprising everyone involved except for Sakura and Neji. This as well as training each medic involved on the ins and outs of the procedure.

The surgery though had gone exactly as planned and now they were waiting for Sakura to recover from the whole affair, which should only take another few days. The pinkette however felt like she could stay for another month lying in the hospital bed, the process of her DNA merging with a new gene taking its toll on her body, stealing every last drop of energy from the young medic.

Sakura smiles as she rests her left hand on top of Neji's as he watches her from the chair beside her bed, he had not left her side since she was out of surgery, even going so far as to eat hospital food, unless his mother or Hinata brought him something else. He had taken a leave from missions until Sakura was at full strength, which the Hokage allowed due to the gleaming ring resting on Sakura's left ring finger.

Neji had proposed not even a month earlier, surprising the bubble gum haired woman by popping the question in the catacombs, in the room which all of Itachi's belongings resided. The pair had still not gone through the entire room and Itachi had left one book in particular that was one of Sakura's favorites to Neji's care. However the book had a cut out area on the inside for a ring to be placed.

So Neji of course had been informed of this many months ago, via the letter Itachi had sent him, so he had found the book and hidden it. That is until the day he intended to propose on which he had discreetly retrieved the book and had handed it to Sakura nonchalantly, eliciting a ridiculous grin from the woman as she read the title of the book finding it was a specially made edition.

Then when the woman had flipped the book open her emerald eyes had widen slightly and then shot up to the Hyuuga in front of her who had easily slid down on to one knee, causing a film of happy tears to glaze the woman's eyes. The proposal being sweet and heart felt, Neji exuding an unbelievable sweetness in his words as he only did when the couple was alone, which wasn't often since they announced the courtship. The kunoichi had immediately whispered a yes and allowed Neji to slide the ring onto her finger before tackling him in a hug, resulting in a rather passionate kiss.

Sakura had immediately raced up to the Hokage's office dragging a slightly smiling Hyuuga behind her there fingers intertwined. The couple had earned an excited yet exasperated "about time" from the busty woman, who then hugged the pair. Then the exuberant jade eyed woman had called all her friends saying they should all have dinner together tonight, which surprisingly everyone agreed to. Then the couple had first gone to the Hyuuga compound and told Neji's mother and Uncle, who had been pleased. His mother immediately beginning to talk of wedding plans, his Uncle smiling proudly, clapping Neji on the should and saying a quiet "well done" before leaving the three to their own devices.

The dinner following with their friends had been rowdy and excited, everyone with a ready congratulation on their lips. Naruto goofily grinning keeping his arm around Hinata's shoulders most of the night, as many of their friend's paired off as well. Ino staying beside Sai, as Anko and Asuma stand together their young son being passed around the group, holding tightly to Shikamaru in particular who has Temari beside him, who was visiting on village business. Karin and Suigetsu stood shoulder to shoulder their hands lightly brushing together, however the most surprising pair, being that of Sasuke and Tenten, the pair sitting side by side at a table, neither person moving yet each readily involved in conversation with the other.

This unusual couple had started when Sakura had arranged to spar with team seven and team Gai; however each team's sensei's taking off on their own competitive adventure. Thus leaving their young students alone. Yet the usual exuberance of Naruto absent as he had a meeting with Hiashi, which Sakura was the only one privileged to know about, which of course meant that Neji also knew.

So the spars had been between Neji and Lee as Lee adamantly refused to fight anyone else, as his youthfulness was over flowing, no one really minded though. This left Sakura, Tenten, and Sasuke. Tenten had immediately challenged Sakura as they had sparred many times before and the weapons mistress had yet to defeat the medic. The fuchsia haired woman declined and suggested the brunette and Sasuke spar, which each had reluctantly agreed to. Sakura though smiled and quickly told Tenten that Sasuke didn't see her as at his level and to shove the thought down his throat, which the woman had readily complied to do.

The match had been long, resulting in Sasuke turning on his Sharingan, even stopping Neji and Lee's match as it caught their interest. Finally however they had ended in a draw when the pinkette tired of the evenly matched duo, she had taught Tenten how to avoid Sasuke's eyes long ago, causing a deep irritation to settle on the Uchiha, putting him off balance in a situation he would have usually easily handled.

So this little spar had led to many others, first involving others, but soon led to private training sessions between the two. This Sakura believed had led to some dinners and conversations between the outlandish pair, and now the pink haired kunoichi believed it would soon lead to a full-fledged relationship, mostly because she snooped a lot. Tenten had been tight lipped about the relationship as had Sasuke, neither giving much away, but Sakura had been through it with Neji and she knew what hidden love looked like, how the two looked at each other confirmed this in Sakura's mind. How Sasuke showed respect and care for the brown eyed girl, Tenten showing the same affection in her mannerisms.

So Sakura used every chance she got to tease the pair about it, privately of course and only if it was one on one with either of them, which meant she mostly teased Tenten, as she was one of her bridesmaids for the wedding and was a constant presence. This teasing never ceased to cause a tomato red blush to encompass the brunettes cheeks, but she always shook her head, neither denying nor affirming the words Sakura spoke. The cherry blossom took that as a sign that Tenten already had accepted her feelings for the raven haired man.

The couple however was not the pinkettes main focus as the wedding would take place in less than nine months. So once she was recovered from the surgery, she would have to split her time between missions, the hospital, wedding plans and then of course training. If Sakura's calculations were correct it would take her several weeks to activate the Sharingan if the surgery was a true success and after that she would have to learn how to use it for herself. No amount of study of the eyes or people with the Sharingan could aid her in using them, which is something Itachi had mentioned in his letter to the woman.

Itachi had been very adamant that she learn to use them without the help of anyone with a Kekkei Genkai or anyone that knew of the Sharingan powers. This meant anyone familiar with the Sharingan, eliminating all the ninja in the leaf. The pinkette did not quite understand why Itachi had been so strict on this issue, but she would do as he said and train mostly on her own. She was planning to travel to Sand and ask Gaara if he would allow her to train with some of their anbu, but with the wedding, Sakura probably wouldn't get to do that any time soon.

Thus Sakura's previous calculations were for naught as she would have even less time to train, and besides she felt as though a train had hit her. Now of course this would not stop the pinkette.

"Neji can you get me some water please." Sakura asks quietly licking her chapped lips, her thoughts turning from the events of the last month to her current condition. The woman carefully taking the cup of ice water Neji had retrieved for her, his pale eyes watching her every move to determine if she was in any pain. He had been quick to get nurses to check on Sakura at regular intervals if they did not show up on time, which caused a stir amongst the nurses, who found this to be utterly amusing, since Sakura always insisted that she was perfectly fine, even when she wasn't.

The strong willed kunoichi found it rather demeaning, since she herself was a nurse, and a few days earlier she had loudly voiced her irritation, her emerald eyes alight with determination. However in her weak state, she could barely move, so her demands were met with a smirk and feather light kiss, that melted the pinkette's heart to the very core, erasing each and every complaint from her pale lips.

So the change in attitude had Sakura willingly asking her soon to be husband for help, but excluding all others. Only rarely would she ask for anything from anyone else, even the nurses. So her stubborn side stuck around, causing amusement for the Hyuuga who had broken through her walls and was now allowed to see the woman's weakness openly.

"How much longer do I have to stay here?" Sakura asks draining the ice water, chewing on the ice, as jade eyes scan the brightly colored flowers surrounding her, no matter how tired she truly was, she would rather be resting in her own home then in the hospital. It's not enough that she worked there constantly; she didn't want to live there too.

"Three days."

"Awww, can't I go on bed rest at home. We can take the garden back too." Sakura pouts, earning a chuckle from her fiancé.

"Sakura, it's only three days, and then you are on bed rest at home."

"Butttttttt, I want to sleep in my own bed. Can't you get me Tsunade and I'll talk her into it." Sakura begs, her top pale pink lip jutting out, her emerald eyes shimmering as she puts on a pitiful expression for Neji. The pearl eyed man, stares a moment and rolls his eyes and gets up heading for the door, sending an electric smile to fly across Sakura's face.

"I love you Neji." Sakura says happily before he opens the door, causing him to pause, his hand on the door knob.

Neji turns slightly to face his cherry blossom the 'look' fixed on to his features, or that's at least what Sakura had dubbed it. A genuine smile breaking his stoic demeanor, as he replies "I love you too doll-face" before exiting the room and softly shutting the door leaving in pursuit of the Hokage.

Neji had started calling her doll-face only a few weeks ago, the change had started with a few off handed comments when she started pouting about something. Which apparently had increased immensely in the last week, but then again the hospital bound young woman, really did not like being in her current surroundings, so she had looked pretty pitiful and pathetic. Her emerald orbs and pale skin apparently make her look like a doll, especially when she widened her eyes; at least that is what Neji had told her. However Sakura had also question Ino and Hinata about the issue when they came to visit her and each had confirmed it, saying that she did indeed look like a doll.

This revelation had sent Sakura into analyzing the pros and cons of her 'doll-face', she was not so sure if it was to be a compliment or not. However once the medic had gone over the information, she decided it was an asset. Sine whenever she used her 'doll-face' looks she usually got what she wanted, at least from the men in her life. Naruto, Kakashi, Sai, Neji, and even Sasuke melted before her pouting features. She had lost count of how many times Kakashi and Naruto had bought her dinner after a training session when she put her pout to use, yet up till now she never fully understood why they had given in so easily, apparently men found it adorable or irresistible somehow.

Women though was a whole other issue, Tsunade normally would punch her through a wall before even glancing at her pitiful expression, while her girlfriends were immune to it all together. Hinata was the only one ever to give in and that is only because she is too nice for her own good.

Sakura sighs as she thinks about this new found power she had, rolling her eyes at the thought of it; it was truly ridiculous that men found it cute. The cherry blossoms thoughts however are cut short as the door flies open, revealing a glaring busty blonde.

"Sakura you are not leaving this hospital, now stop sending people to get me." Tsunade shouts stomping in and haphazardly checking Sakura over. The pinkette had sent a few people to talk the irate Hokage, but not so many to induce such a rage, at least that's what Sakura thought.

"You have sent almost three dozen people to me asking if you could be released early, although I was surprised Neji was not the first." Tsunade rages as she checks Sakura's fluid levels.

"Oh come on it has not been that many and Neji was the first one I asked but he ignored my request until now." Sakura says putting on her pout, to see if it would calm her mother figures anger.

"Do not give me that look. You sent half the anbu ranks, all the rookies and team Gai including the senseis, heck I even had some academy students at my door asking. How you get so many people on your side in this I will never know I am the Hokage for goodness sakes. That fact alone is probably the only reason half the staff in the hospital didn't turn against me and let you leave or at least attempt to leave. The past four days you probably couldn't have walked to the door." The busty blonde continues to rant as she finished checking Sakura's vitals.

The pinkette remains quiet, acknowledging the fact that she had been extremely weak that past few days. The blonde shakes her head her pig tails bouncing against her shoulders, as she rolls her eyes and looks at Neji.

"Fine, you are released from the hospital, on one condition."

"Anything!"

"Bed rest for the next three days, and no leaving your home for a week longer, I do not want you out in public about to fall over. This surgery has turned into a political matter and if something goes wrong, it won't end well for anyone here." Tsunade speaks briskly receiving solemn nods of understanding.

"Good then Neji take her home, I'll have someone bring the garden to you."

"Wait what?" Sakura questions her jade eyes widening as she notices all the wires and tubes had been removed, however this is overshadowed by Neji's strong hand grasping her smaller one with a grin, before sweeping Sakura gently into his arms and disappearing in a flurry of leaves.

* * *

**Well here it is, it's kind of a filler, but I needed it for how I want the story to go (ok maybe I just wanted to write it but whatever, I feel it's necessary). Hopefully the next will be the last chapter, if not then the more the merrier! Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

Bubble gum locks fly across petite shoulders, as the kunoichi slowly makes her way through the trees, a few days after the young woman had been released from bed rest. The usually energetic young woman was exhausted, she hadn't done anything besides run and she felt like she was going to die.

Sakura had been exuberant to start training three days ago but now the medic felt like she could sleep for another week. It had taken her the entire first day after being released to convince Neji to let her train alone and that had only been after she had shown him the instructions from Itachi. Even then the Hyuuga had been keeping tabs on Sakura's location, which irritated the fiery woman, but she could live with it. Her team mates were the biggest problem as they refused to let her be alone to train which had caused the young woman to take off at a ridiculous pace headed away from the village.

Sakura had run at top speed for over five hours until she lost the four men chasing after her and that had been partially due to a genjustsu she had cast. After losing the men she had doubled back taking the long way back at a leisurely pace, however that was until she hit a wall. The pinkette could usually run for two full days without help or five days at top speed with the help of solider pills, but now the woman felt like she could barely stand and she was still an hour away from the village.

The tired woman stops on a sturdy tree branch slumping down against the trunk of the giant oak, her jade eyes falling shut, a sigh escaping her chapped lips. Sakura slowly takes out her water and drinks slowly, breathing evenly as she prepares herself to run again in a few short minutes. One thing Itachi had always stressed in her training was to always know your limits and take stock of every situation and prepare accordingly. Itachi's training was the only reason Sakura hadn't passed out hours ago from running so hard, the pinkette had routinely taken breaks to rehydrate and take care of herself, by throwing a few jutsu's at her boys to get them off her trail for a bit.

Jade eyes flash open in surprise as she feels five chakra signatures coming her way, her exhaustion disappearing from her features as she stands to her feet casting a quick genjustsu to hide her from the approaching ninja as she had concealed her chakra long ago.

"Dang it they shouldn't have been able to find me." Sakura hisses out to herself as she conceals herself further as she recognizes the feel of her team mates and fiancés chakra signatures.

_"Well you know, we are weak still from the surgery, but I think this was good training for the day. We sort of followed Itachi's rules."_ Sakura's inner quips seriously, causing a small bell laugh to escape Sakura's lips as she now realizes why Itachi had given her a set of rules to follow.

During the pinkette's bed rest Neji had brought her some things of Itachi's from the vault, one being a sealed envelope with her name written on it. The contents of this letter being far different from any letters Sakura had received previously.

This time Itachi had again stressed the importance of her training either alone or with some one unfamiliar with the Sharingan. Then it had followed with a list of exercises she should do after the surgery, one of which was to simply run. He had also stressed that she take care of herself and not overdo it, even going so far as telling her to stay away from Naruto for a few days, so as not to stress herself out, which Sakura found beyond amusing. There was also various jutsu she should work on or practice along with a long list of people Itachi knew that she could seek out and train with. The list had surprised the cherry blossom so much, since one of the names on the list was a former Akatsuki member. However this Sakura hadn't thought about since Tsunade had signed off of her release papers three days ago.

Sakura rolls her eyes as she thinks about the letter Itachi had left her about his eyes and all the training he suggested, but these thoughts disappear as Jade orbs catch sight of a blonde man in a bright orange jumpsuit followed by three dark haired men and finally her silver haired sensei with an orange book in front of his face.

"Neji, Sasuke do you guys see her or something?" the blonde asks his baby blue eyes searching the area intently, as the other two men shake their heads.

"Naruto, if she doesn't want to be found then we aren't going to find her. She has been trained in avoiding our abilities and even in her weakened state it's better to just let her be. If she needs our help we would know." Neji replies deactivating his eyes as he looks into Naruto's frantic blue eyes.

"No, grandma told us of all those complications that could happen due to surgery and she said some could appear even months later. She could lose her eyes sight or it could block her chakra channels, she could die from this." Naruto says frantically trailing off into to the many other complications that the cherry blossom tunes out, her jade eyes sad. Her blonde best friend was only reacting to the new he had received from her doctor, just like anyone else's relative would.

Sakura sighs as she released a breath, these men were her family and she should at least explain this fully to all of them. Just because Neji and Sasuke understood didn't mean they weren't worried, it just allowed them to trust her to take care of herself. Sakura was sure Kakashi at least suspected but her fox brother and Sai probably didn't even have a clue that she had trained under Itachi, they probably thought the gene that had been place in her was from Sasuke or something ridiculous like that. They weren't medics the pinkette realizes as she sees both Neji and Sasuke trying to convince Naruto into going back to the village, which Sakura knows immediately the hard headed man would not do without her beside him.

The pinkette quickly makes a decision and positions herself and releases the jutsu, standing a little ways above the four men, but still going unnoticed as she keeps her chakra concealed. Jade eyes watch the four fondly a smile lighting up her tired features as Kakashi glances at her over the top of his book and grins at her his lone eye creasing while the other four continue to argue.

"You guys are idiots." Sakura finally speaks allowing her presence to be known to the four bickerers, who whip around to stare up at the smiling woman, each with varying looks of relief.

"Sakura, where have you been?!" Naruto demands his blue eyes bright now as a clear look of relief fly's across his face, his shoulders and hands relaxing as he sees that Sakura is fine, his eyes searching for any sign of injury.

"Training apparently, you know running is good exercise and I got some good genjustsu training in too." Sakura says with a smile, which is wiped away by the look of complete and utter pain that flashes across Naruto's whiskered face, so before the blonde or anyone else can speak harsh words out of frustration Sakura appears before the blonde her smile still in place and places one one hand on his whiskered face.

"Naruto, we are family and I love you all so much, but this training is something you have to let me do alone. However since we are family I need to tell all of you some stuff." Sakura says her jade eyes watching Azul eyes soften dramatically all frustration gone, only curiosity left. The kunoichi lets her hand fall away as she turns to look at the other four men, two with understanding expressions, one sending 'the look' in the pinkettes direction causing a bit of color to rush to her pale cheeks, while the remaining two men give her their complete attention.

"Ok but first let's get back to the village, last one back buys dinner." The woman says grinning so wide she could rival Naruto, as the men's eyes widen as she disappears in a flurry of cherry blossoms, the five men taking off after her quickly.

* * *

Sakura blinks sleepily noticing that the shoulder of her Hyuuga fiancé that she had fallen asleep on last night had been replaced by a fluffy pillow and a blanket that covered her lithe form. Jade eyes quickly look around her dim living room, seeing her men scattered throughout the room, at least most of her men.

Naruto splayed out on one end of the couch while Sasuke was at the other end, while Sai had fallen asleep in the grey recliner, while Kakashi was asleep a few feet away from the pinkette. Neji had left earlier the previous night due to a meeting with the Hokage.

The blonde fox shinobi had been forced to treat the group to dinner, fortunately he was allowed to choose the restaurant and the six had eaten their fill of ramen. The loud man though had complained that Sasuke had trapped him in a genjustsu, which had caused him to lose, but no one had pity on him. Sakura had then brought the men to her home and explained everything about Itachi, her surgery and her training, each of the men having questions, that had taken sometime to answer. This had been followed by a late night movie marathon.

Sakura quietly stands up, folding her blanket and putting it away. A smile alights her face as she notices a ball of black fur snuggled up next to Kakashi, Ebony had taken quite a liking to the copy nin and had been by his side all last night. Sakura grins as she glances one last time at her puppy and silently makes her way through her home, moving to her room first and changing, before placing clean towels and fresh clothes in her two bathrooms for her boys. Then Sakura makes her way into the kitchen and starts cooking breakfast, placing a bowl of food on the kitchen floor for her small wolf pup to eat.

The pinkette soon hears her boys waking up, as she fries some bacon and starts some scrambled eggs on next to it. Soon Sakura hears the two showers in her home turn on, and not even five minutes later, the silver haired copy nin enters the kitchen drying his damp hair with a towel.

"Good morning" Sakura says cheerfully smiling as the silver haired man sends her a smile, as his mask had been remove the night before. The man didn't mind his former students seeing his face anymore, besides they had successfully unmasked him three years earlier, but Sasuke was surprised as it was his first time to see the silver haired jounin unmasked. The older man was actually quite handsome under the mask, but said man didn't like the attention his looks got him and after he received the Sharingan eye from his teammate he was almost ashamed to show his face to people for a while. However after he came to terms with that he decided the mask suited him.

The bubble gum haired girl places a plate full of food down in front of the man and smiles sassily as she says, "So I've got a question for you." Kakashi only nods in acknowledgement digging into his food, as he had more questions the night before then anyone else, even Neji, about the surgery and her training regimen.

"Do you ever wish you had children? I mean you would have had some fantastic kids." Sakura blurts out her cheeks turning a pretty pink, as Kakashi's eyes widen his hand freezing mid bite.

"Why?"

"Just answer the question and then I'll tell you why." Sakura demands her hands on her hips, her jade eyes now glaring. The two simply stare for a few seconds, before Kakashi rolls his lone eye and puts his fork down.

"No I don't wish I had children and I already know you're going to ask me why so save your breath." Kakashi speaks finally exasperated with the bull headed pinkette, but continues any way, "I never have wanted kids, because I have seen too many of my friends die at young ages, and I grew up without my parents. I didn't want any child of mine to grow up without me, and besides I haven't quite found a woman willing to stick with me forever yet." Kakashi says a grin on his lips as Sakura looks on with wide watery jade eyes.

"Oh don't start crying on me, it's not like I don't have kids to take care of or anything. You lot are harder to handle sometimes then any toddler is." Kakashi cuts off the cherry blossom, causing a bell like laugh to leave Sakura's pale pink lips.

"I guess that is true, but you have enjoyed every minute of it." Sakura giggles earning a gruff laugh from the copy nin, who simply smiles at the bubbly woman and picks up his fork.

"Oh one more question." Sakura laughs her jade eyes bright, as Kakashi sighs and puts his fork back down and turns his attention on the happy woman giving her the go ahead to ask, since really they had no secrets.

"Will you give me away at my wedding? My parents have been gone for so long and you and Lady Tsunade are really the ones that have taken care of me since then and I just I don't know, I feel like you kind of are the father figure in my life." Sakura speaks quickly her emerald orbs turned down afraid to look up and see the answer.

Kakashi had checked on her every week since he had found out about her parents had died, and hadn't stopped. He even cooked for her, which he was quite good at, and showered her with gifts on holidays. He helped her look for a house and had actually picked out the house she now lived in. He knew exactly what she liked and what bothered her, heck he'd even given Neji the talk once he heard about the courtship, even though he had already know that the Hyuuga was in love with Sakura and would never hurt her, he just had to make sure. And secretly Neji had come to him years ago about liking Sakura, but hadn't done anything until later, Neji had even asked the silver haired man about his opinion on the engagement ring. The copy nin took very good care of the beloved cherry blossom of Konoha, just like her father would have if he was alive.

The silver haired man stands up slowly moving to the woman's side causing her to look up at him. Jade eyes meet a lone glassy onyx eye and Kakashi breaks into a huge grin. "It would be my honor to give you away at your wedding." The copy nin speaks his voice cracking ever so slightly bringing tears of joy to Sakura's eyes as she lunges forward and wraps her slender arms around her surrogate father in a tight hug, which he happily returns.

The pair breaks apart after a few minutes, Sakura still beaming while she starts cooking more food for the rest of her boys. While Kakashi continues eating contently, not taking out his little orange book at all that day. The three other men that appear in the kitchen not much later are confused by the pair's actions but choose to ignore it in favor of scarfing down the delicious food that a deliriously happy pinkette places in front of them. Sakura doesn't even punch Sai for calling her ugly or Naruto for being an idiot, but Sasuke makes sure to take care of the Naruto issue for her, resulting in a trip to the training grounds not even an hour later.

Sakura however doesn't even attempt to stop the two men, but leaves that to Sai who simply paints out a couple of creatures to separate the scuffle between the bullheaded men when they get a little out of hand, which is unsuccessful. While Kakashi just watches the pair from a tree branch above the cherry blossom woman, who has a binder full of wedding plans in her lap, scribbling away notes on various pages.

Sakura had neglected the whole wedding plan fiasco in favor of training, but now that Kakashi had agreed to give her away a spark had been lit and the exuberant bubble gum haired woman was in full planning mode. Jade eyes widen and her panicked orbs shift up to look at the silver haired man above her, who raises his one eyebrow at the uncharacteristic look of distress on the woman's face. The silver haired man does not delay in appearing next to Sakura who blinks rapidly.

"I'm getting married and I have to pick out a dress that people will love. I have to make so many decisions and I am going to be the center of attention and I have to look better than everyone else, that's just not possible…." Sakura whimpers out trailing off as her jade eyes turn glassy as tears build, causing the copy nin to place a comforting hand on her pink hair, distracting her.

"Sakura, you do not need to look better then everyone. You will pick a dress you like and you will wear it to walk down the aisle to Neji, no one else. And besides you will out shine everyone, you always besides if I recall correctly you have a group of overly excited women and the entire Hyuuga clan that want to help plan your wedding." Kakashi says seriously brushing pink locks from teary eyes, that are soon flooded with tears as she dives into a surprised silver haired man's arms sobbing and attempting to say thank you at the same time, which only comes out as a higher pitched sob. This attracts the attention of the previously engaged men, who immediately stop their fight at the pinkette's distress.

"Sakura?" the blonde questions first the two dark haired men flanking him as they slowly approach the pair, the reaction they receive surprises them. Sakura sobs louder, then looks up and waves the three wary men closer and when they reach her she wipes tears away as best she can before saying "I love you guys."

This earns four loud laughs with each man returning the sentiment in his own form or fashion. Naruto boisterously shouting it out as he wraps Sakura in a bear hug, that she gladly returns with a little extra strength added for good measure. Sasuke however gives Sakura a side hug mumbling back his reply, but as emerald eyes stare him down he slowly rolls his onyx orbs and relents giving her a proper hug and saying he loved her loud enough for at least her to hear. Sai even hugs her, dropping the ugly bit and saying "Love you to Sakura" a genuine smile lighting his features. Kakashi is last and he hugs the beaming young women before swiftly pulling his mask down kissing her on the forehead as he returns her words sincerely with a soft smile on his lips.

Sakura grins happily, but blurts out "I've turned into an emotional mess." This causing the men around her to laugh and silently agree, Kakashi ruffles Sakura's pink locks before offering to buy them all ramen for lunch, the loud blonde immediately agrees and starts leading the way to his favorite restaurant as the finally whole team seven follows behind with smiles on their faces.

* * *

**Hello faithful readers! I know it's been a while,but the summer was busy. I know this is a bit of a filler, but it also means more chapters, I couldn't bring myself not to write in some team 7 loving, and so here is a tidbit of it. Well please review! Thanks ^_^**


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